To Another World and Back Again
by darkestviolet
Summary: COMPLETE Two girls get their wish, they're sucked into the Naruto Universe. What stupid things will happen? Who knows, read to find out. Centers around Kakashi and team 7. Bits of fangirlism, but not much.
1. What if

To Another World and Back Again

**Disclaimer -** I own nothing of Naruto, obviously.

**Author's Note -** There are a few things you need to keep in mind before reading this fic of mine.

**1.** I am not a hardcore fan of Naruto, so don't moan and groan in complete annoyance if I mess something up.

**2.** This is my first fic, and I had no one read over it. So any errors I make have slipped past me. Don't be a grammar nazi if you can get what I am trying to convey.

**3.** This is my little twisted rendition of the Naruto world. I may take a few character personalities and warp them slightly. Its no fun to do everything by the book, y'know.

The plot line for this fic is before episode 80, but in no particular place. No major battles will be replayed, whatever twisted going's on will be portrayed, nothing more. I hope to have some sort of content to this story. I can only hope as I write more chapters.

With that said, enjoy. Or at least don't flame. O.o

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_What if dreams came true? Or what if you could turn the first thought in your head into a reality? These can all be possible with the help of a hyperactive imagination and a good amount of free time._

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**Chapter One**- What if

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A young woman about 19 years of age stepped off a bus sighing heavily. She looked around for a familiar face but found no one. The bus behind her started up again and drove off, leaving her enveloped in a cloud of dust and debris.

"I loathe public transportation" she said through gritted teeth.

She stood there as the dust and debris settled before she started walking in the direction of her home. She looked up at the sky, which had become overcast since the day began. Behind her, one of her friends was able to sneak up behind her without notice.

"Rica! You're late. I've been looking all over for you, and you just leave without me!" shouted her friend Luca without any warning, causing Rica to let out a short yelp of surprise.

Rica stopped, took a deep breath and calmly turned around.

"You know, you could have easily called my phone if you didn't see me. I'm sorry I was late, the damn bus was held up again. I really need to get a car to make this school thing go by smoothly." Rica explained in a completely calm manner.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry." said Luca hurriedly. "I thought we were going to hang out today."

"Change of plans, I have to get home to complete an assignment before I will be available to do anything. I don't want to get behind like you." she said with a slight smirk, which got no reaction from Luca.

"Ok, whatever. How about tomorrow then?" Luca said as she brushed a few strands of hair out of her eyes.

"Sounds like a plan, but I gotta go. I'll talk to you later." Rica said as she turned to walk away. She was glad to be away from Luca today. Her hyperactive personality was a drain on her slower, yet more relaxed one.

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"Yo, I'm home." Rica shouted to an obviously empty house. Her mother and father worked till after 8:00pm and her older brother comes and goes whenever he pleases. She kicked the door shut and walked into the kitchen to forage for food before going on the computer. After finding something, Rica made her way upstairs to her room, turned on her computer and sat down.

Rica drummed her fingers impatiently as her computer finally finished starting up.

"Finally." she murmured as she hit the Internet Explorer icon. Yawning, she accessed her favorites menu and selected her favorite site and logged on. Rica's attention span waned as she surfed the site. Nothing seemed to interest her till she noticed a new message.

"Oh." she said in an emotionless tone as she clicked the icon. Rica drummed her fingers on her desk as the page loaded. A message by an unknown user (to her at least) was present in her inbox with the title "What if…"

"What if what…" she said with the slightest glimmer of curiosity. "I only had seven days to live?" she finished with a bemused expression as the page finished loading. Her expression quickly changed to that of interest as her eyes scanned the first few lines of the message.

The message read -

"What if you could have your wildest dream come true? It can happen, Miss Rica. All you have to do is reply back and I can guide you on a journey of a life time."

"A journey? Does it include a life time supply of hash and shrooms…?" she paused briefly before giving a mental shrug and hitting the reply button. "Why not."

Re-reading before she typed in her reply, Rica sighed and answered with -

"Alright, tell me more."

She hit "reply to sender" and went along with her usual routine. An hour or so later the icon indicating a new message was again on Rica's screen. Without hesitation she hit it to find that the mysterious user had replied to her message.

"Now let me see what you can do." She said aloud to herself as she clicked the message.

"So you're interested? Good, good. This might seem a bit odd but we must chat in person. Do not fear, I don't bite. If still interested, meet me at Cedar Park, tomorrow at 3:00PM by the bench with the drinking fountain. No need to worry about finding me - I'll find you. Reply back."

"Alrighty then, I got myself a bloody nutcase." Rica said as she finished reading. At that moment an IM window popped up from Luca

**- IM Format -**

(Rica Rica-Sama Luca DestroyerOfWorlds)

DestroyerOfWorlds: Hello Rica!  
Rica-Sama: Hey, guess what.  
DestroyerOfWorlds: What is it?  
Rica-Sama: Some nut job claiming that they can grant my wildest wish wants me to meet them at Cedar Park tomorrow at 3:00PM  
DestroyerOfWorlds: Wow, cool. Can I come? Please?  
Rica-Sama: What?  
DestroyerOfWorlds: You didn't read wrong. I want to come.  
Rica-Sama: Sure, sure. Its probably nothing anyway.

Rica downsized the window and typed her response.

"Alright. See you there." She hit send and slumped back into her chair.

"What did I get myself into?"

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**End chapter one.**

I have future chapters in the works as well as an ending, but not much for a middle. So I need to flesh out a few things, and hopefully I can have a relatively interesting fiction to work with.

My apologies to those who think it sucks. If you do, don't bother telling me so. Constructive crits are fine, no flames, or destructive crits. Like I previously stated, this is my first fiction on this site.

Further explanation on Rica and Luca will come as the story progresses.


	2. To Konoha!

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Disclaimer - I don't own Naruto obviously.

Author's Note - More on Rica and Luca. I prefer to give a detailed beginning before the girls find themselves in the Naruto Universe. What will become of them? I don't even know.

Now on to the story.

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Chapter two - To Konoha!

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It was 2:50PM as Rica and Luca made their way to Cedar Park.

"So are you're telling me that this person can grant your wildest desire?" Luca said with a starry-eyed expression.

"That's what the person said. Its probably a load of bullshit anyway. But its something to do." Rica said looking around.

The two girls walked towards the said destination. Few people were around which was odd for this time of day. Normally small children accompanied by their parents would be all over the place.

"Odd…no one is around." Rica said as she scanned the playground.

"Yeah, ain't it neat? Lets find this person." Luca said almost overflowing with excitement.

At five minutes before 3:00PM Rica and Luca arrived at the bench with the drinking fountain.

"No one is here. Lets go." Rica said tersely as she turned to walk away.

"NO! It's only 2:55 we have five minutes." shouted Luca, almost pleadingly to Rica.

"Okay, whatever." Rica said, sitting down.

"You're scared aren't you?" Luca said giving Rica a prod.

"I'm not, and don't do that." Rica grabbed Luca's finger and bent it backwards causing Luca to yelp in pain.

"Geez, why do you have to act so tense lately? You never used to be this way." Luca whined.

"Its none of your concern…" Rica stopped as a figure dressed in dark colours walked up to the two girls.

"Miss Rica, pleasure to meet you, I was worried you wouldn't come." said the dark figure, in a deep voice which appeared to be disguised. .

"Eh, I came. And I brought a friend." Rica said motioning to Luca who had taken out a manga and was idly flipping though the pages. "Goddammit woman, you were so excited to come, and when he finally arrives you bring out a manga?" Rica said in an annoyed tone.

"Don't worry about her. You came here for answers to your questions did you not?" the man asked, interrupting Rica.

"Yes." Rica said flatly.

"Good. Now I'll answer the most obvious questions. Why you? I don't know…call it fate.

Can I actually grant anything? That I can do as well." the man began.

Rica started to open her mouth but the man stopped her.

"No repercussions. Except for time travel. Nasty business." the man mused as Rica sat there dumbfounded.

"So you can do anything?" Rica finally said.

"Yes." he replied.

Rica was skeptical as usual. She let out a sigh and looked around. Luca was oblivious to the world. Her entire concentration was directed to her Naruto manga. _"Wonder what'd it'd be like to be in the Naruto universe…" _Rica thought as she looked at Luca.

"So you want to find out?" The man asked, snapping Rica back to reality.

"What?" she said looking up at him.

"So do you want to find out? the man repeated, the excitement clearly evident in his voice.

"Can you read my mind?" Rica asked, looking directly at the man.

"One of the many things I am capable of. So how 'bout it?" the man asked again.

A small smile crept across her face at the thought of going into an alternate universe.

"Lets do it but…" Rica trailed off, thinking for a second.

"Don't worry, you'll come back." he answered her question before she had a chance to say anything.

"Alright." Rica said with a nod.

Without hesitation, the man raised his hands and muttered something quickly under his breath. A second later a light flashed from above, catching Rica off guard. And in a flash she was gone.

Luca looked up from her manga, clearly dazed.

"What happened?" Luca said, looking around trying to find Rica.

"I granted your friend one of her wildest desires." the man said, a smile on his face.

"Where is she? Did she get a boat load of money, men, a life-time supply of ramen, the country of Yemen…" Luca listed random things.

Luca was cut off by the man. "No. She was sent to an alternate universe."

"Really?" Luca said, standing up. "What one?"

The man simply pointed to her manga which was laying on the park bench next to Luca.

"…No way." Luca got down on her knees and shouted to nothing in particular. "Damnit Rica, take me with you!"

The man looked at her clearly amused. He gave her a pat on the back and sat on the park bench, waiting for Luca to sit next to him.

"In case you're wondering if your friend is alive or not, you can see everything she does with this." he pulled out a book and opened it. A bird's eye view of Konoha was right at their fingertips.

"Wow, Cool." Luca said staring at the book. "Why no crystal ball?"

"Those are overrated" said the man in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Ah. Duh." Luca said, her eyes still fixed on the book.

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Meanwhile, in the middle of a wooded area, Rica lay unconscious for some time. After a few minutes she began to stir.

"What in the hell…" she said as she braced herself up on her elbows before getting up.

The area around her was heavily wooded with large trees. The song of birds could be heard all around her.

"Looks like I'm not in Kansas anymore." Rica said in a mocking tone as she scanned the area. Something about the area was familiar, even though she had never been physically there.

"So the man was right…my "wildest" desire was now granted…now what?" she said aloud to herself as she dusted off her pants. "I'm probably going to get myself killed just standing here." Rica moved into the brush and sighed. "Kinda wish Luca was here to keep me company."

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Luca squealed as she watched and listened to Rica.

"Awww, she wishes I was there." she said with a teary-eyed expression. The man put a hand to his forehead and sighed. Luca was too much for him to handle.

"Alright, you want to join your friend - go." the man muttered the same thing as last time and Luca disappeared.

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Rica looked around in confusion as she heard someone yelling. The noise was getting closer every second then suddenly a crash could be heard a couple yards away.

"Dammit…my ass." groaned the figure hidden behind a bush.

Rica moved slowly to the area where the crash was heard and parted the bushes a bit to get a glimpse of the person that had fallen. To her surprise, as well as misfortune it was Luca, rubbing her ass with a pained expression on her face.

"So, the man threw you in too. Lemme guess, you wouldn't shut up." Rica said as she parted the bush enough to walk through.

Luca jumped to face Rica and smiled. "Yep. It worked as you can see."

"Now with us here, what do we do now?" Rica said looked up towards the sky.

"To Konoha!" shouted Luca at the top of her lungs. The young girl climbed a tree to get a better view of the surrounding area.

"Its that way!" she shouted pointing westward. Luca jumped down from the tree and started skipping, yes skipping in the direction of Konoha.

"Great. Just what I need. I'm going to die at the hands of Ninjas while Luca is skipping with glee." Rica shrugged her shoulders and followed her over-excited friend.

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End of Chapter two.

Chapter three will have Naruto-ness. That I promise. Chapter three should be up within two-three days.


	3. Last Resort

**Disclaimer** - I don't own Naruto obviously.

**Author's Note** - To my surprise things are moving quicker than I thought. I should have chapter four done sometime during the weekend or by Saturday at the earliest. I write mostly at night and re-read and edit it and upload it. I've never written a story with copyrighted characters before, so getting their personalities right is going to be a challenge. Its harder than it looks, that's all I gotta say.

**Chapter Three** - Last Resort

After 30 minutes of walking through the forest, Rica and Luca made their way to what appeared to be the outskirts of a few homes. They could see a good portion of the village and some of the people in it. Life was pretty calm, people walking through the streets with their children lagging behind. Older children running after one another and adults talking.

"Wow, I can't believe we're here, I can't believe we're here, I can't believe we're here." Luca said jumping up and down like a five year old. "This is a dream come true." She squealed happily.

"Shut up and stop jumping around. Don't draw so much attention to yourself either. We are outsiders Especially with the way we are dressed…" Rica paused for a second as Luca calmed down. "What we need is a way to earn enough money to get suitable clothes, these clothes won't do."

"I know! We can perform on a street corner as obvious foreigners doing skits of some sort!" Luca said waving her hand as if she was in a classroom.

"Eh…Only, and _only_ as a last resort." Rica said in a low tone.

As the two girls were talking a boy with blond hair was approaching them, his vision directed towards the ground.

"Shit, into the bush!" Rica pushed Luca into a nearby bush without having the boy see her.

"That was a close one." Rica whispered.

Luca had something else on her mind as she peeked through the leaves with an overly starry-eyed expression on her face.

"N-N-Naruto…R-Rica…L-Look…Hold me." She choked out clearly trying to control herself.

"Shhh…we can't let ourselves be known, not yet at least. Rica said, covering Luca's mouth.

Both girls watched as Naruto walked by. He glanced towards the bush the girls were hiding in and gave a slight shrug. His attention was quickly averted to a dark haired boy and a pink haired girl some yards ahead of him.

"Sasuke! Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled and waved his hand before running to meet his teammates.

By this time Rica was having an incredibly hard time holding onto Luca.

"Mmmph…Mmmph…" Luca muttered through Rica's hand.

"Calm down dammit. I for one don't want to get into any trouble." Rica snapped. "Looks like the coast is clear."

The two girls retreated from the bush and made their way to town.

**Meanwhile…**

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura made their way to the Ichiraku Ramen since Sakura and Sasuke owed Naruto lunch. Naruto was well ahead of the other two, clearly excited that he was getting a free meal.

"Hey guys, I thought I saw two girls in a bush a while ago." Naruto said as he was preparing to eat a bowl of ramen.

"Really?" Sasuke said in an uninterested tone.

"Now that's stupid Naruto, it was probably your imagination playing tricks on you because you were hungry." Sakura said calmly.

"Mmm…maybe you're right Sakura-chan." Naruto said as he was finishing off the last of his ramen and was reaching for another bowl.

**---------------------------------------------------------**

Rica and Luca had failed at all their attempts for getting money. Well, not entirely. They had gotten some spare change from some kind people, and found a couple coins on the ground, but it wasn't nearly enough to purchase some clothing, not even a sock, and they didn't need those.

"Great. Reduced to playing on a street corner." Said a defeated Rica as she held out a cup as people threw change into it. Luca was dancing and doing flips in a small area.

"Gymnastics paid off." Said Luca between flips.

"Whatever." Said Rica as a passer-by threw a couple coins in. Rica smiled and nodded to the person.

After 20 minutes of performing, Rica and Luca had drawn a good sized crowd around them. Mostly people there just to gawk at their clothes. Rica had been wearing long denim pants and a gray tattered hooded sweatshirt, while Luca on the other hand had been wearing her track uniform which consisted of a white tank top with her school's logo on it and black loose shorts with the school logo on the left leg. Their clothing wasn't too outrageous, but different to those around them, which created the crowd.

"Are you some sort of traveling performer?" One young man said to Rica who had a bored expression on her face.

"I wouldn't call us that, we're kinda stuck here for a while." She said calmly.

"Where are you guys from?" The young man inquired again.

"Not from around here." Rica said quickly.

The young man could take the hint that she wasn't really open to a conversation and threw good amount of money into the cup.

"I hope you guys do well." He said and walked off.

Rica smiled as the young man left. "Maybe we can get something after all."

"Riiccaaa." Luca said in a whining tone as the crowd was dispersing. "How about you do something now, I'm tired."

"But what can I possibly do?" She said looking at her exhausted friend.

"I…uh…lets see…" She paused for a second. "I know! You can sing, so sing a song!" Luca exclaimed with a sudden burst of newfound energy.

"…I don't know. Its been a while since I sang anything." Rica said with uncertainty in her voice.

"Well, sing a song from our time, or just make up something. Its not like anyone is going to know the difference." Luca said sitting down. "Now lemme have the cup and count the change."

Rica gave the cup to Luca who dumped its contents onto the ground. She sat there for a while and looked up at Rica.

"How the hell am I supposed to count it if I don't know what each coin means?" Luca said frowning.

"Just sort them according to size. We can get someone to tell us how much we have later." Rica said hurriedly.

Rica sat down as Luca was sorting out the coins. They had a good amount, but they didn't know if it was enough to get anything. She sat thinking quietly for a song, nothing really came to her so she tried to form a song in her head. After five minutes, she stood up and dusted her pants off.

"I got something, do some flips to get more attention, I don't want to sing to nothing you know."

"Alrighty." Luca said as she put the coins she counted into a small bag she had with her.

Luca stretched and began to do flips once again, it took a little longer to draw some people before Luca stopped and shouted.

"Ladies, gentlemen, I present my friend Rica who will sing a SONG!" Luca said with gusto as Rica shot her a death glare.

Great, she had to embarrass me.

Rica cleared her throat and began to sing.

A myriad of colors flashing by  
independent yet contained  
wanting so much to be out there  
among the flashing lights and musical sounds  
of a world of color and fascination

lead the way, and I'll follow you  
to where ever it is you're headed  
exploring that has yet to be explored  
doing things of which dreams are made of

Loving the feeling of the wind against my face  
showing me that there's more to life than just sitting around  
wanting so much to be free all the time  
but to come back home at the end of the day

Life, love, truth, beauty  
these are the things that make us sing  
these are the things that dreams are made of  
nothing can hold me down

Staring out into the great beyond  
of places yet to explore  
the places in which you feel unbridled and free  
and hoping they're real, and not imaginary

Rica sang and tried her best to keep her voice from wavering as more and more people came to listen to her. She had been in choir for a few years, but never thought of herself as good enough to draw a crowd. As she was singing, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura walked out of the Ichiraku Ramen, Naruto clearly full to the point of bursting.

"You shouldn't have eaten so much you baka." Sakura said pointing a finger to Naruto's expanded stomach.

"B-But, I can't help it!" Naruto said loudly.

"So noisy." Sasuke said without looking at Naruto.

"Am I not!" Naruto said loudly and was about to hit Sasuke but he suddenly because aware of his expanded size and stopped. "Oooh, I think I'm gonna be sick."

"That's what you get." Sakura said.

The three turned the corner and noticed a crowd of people not too far from where they were.

"Wonder what's going on." Sakura said as she watched the crowd.

"Yeah, lets go find out." Naruto waddled faster towards the crowd as Sakura and Sasuke trailed behind.

Rica was just about finished singing as Naruto pushed his way past some people to the front. He stood there just like the rest. Rica almost cracked her voice as the blond haired boy pushed his way to the front. Luckily she was almost done and finished without missing a note. The crowd around her clapped politely and threw some more change at Luca, who hadn't noticed Naruto yet.

The crowd started to disperse as soon as Rica was finished. She bowed politely and thanked those who complimented her. When everyone left, Naruto made his way to Rica and waved.

"That sounded cool." He said smiling with a hand on his extended stomach.

"T-thank you." Rica said, uncertain on what to say. It wasn't everyday someone had a chance to talk to an animated character.

_I feel like I'm stuck in some demented fanfic. Normal people don't talk to animated characters. They don't, they don't, they don't. Act calm, since they're people too, at least in this universe._

Sakura and Sasuke made their way to the crowd as it was dispersing. They only heard the last few lines of Rica's song.

"So, from the looks of it you two don't look like you are from around here." Naruto said looking at both the girls. _Not half bad either._ He thought to himself.

"Well, you could say that." Rica said in a softer tone than normal. "it's a rather long story."

""Maybe you can tell us sometime." Said Sakura as she walked up and stood next to Naruto.

Rica nodded and Luca finally looked up from what she was doing and had a blank expression on her face. She didn't know what to do or how to react, so she just sat there dazed. Rica looked down at Luca, who was still dazed and prayed she wouldn't do anything stupid.

"Yeah, maybe I could." Rica said smiling.

She extended her hand out and smiled.

"I'm Rica, its nice to meet you all. You're the first people to actually stop and talk to us since we arrived." She said with a broad smile, which was unlike her.

"Haruno Sakura." Sakura said extending her hand to shake Rica's. "Nice to meet you as well." Sakura was about to introduce the other two as Naruto jumped in front of Sakura to shake Rica's hand.

"Uzumaki Naruto at your service." Naruto said as he shook Rica's hand roughly. He walked over to the dazed Luca and grabbed her hand and shook it as well. "Nice to meet you." He waved a hand in front of Luca's face, which hadn't changed one bit.

"Don't mind Luca, she's spaced out right now, she'll come back to us soon." Rica said as she turned to Sasuke.

"Uchiha Sasuke." He said in a monotonous voice as he gave Rica a firm handshake. "Nice to meet you." He said as he let go of her hand.

"Nice to meet you too." She said politely.

She was getting odd vibes from Sasuke, who had been giving them suspicious looks since he arrived.

"So what are you guys doing with all that money?" Inquired Sakura looking at the now full cup of coins.

"We're trying to get some new clothes. As we were traveling we lost out luggage and we need at least another set of clothes to tide us over before we find a job of some sort." Rica explained.

Well, we did lose our clothes so-to-speak. She thought to herself as Sakura's face brightened.

"I know a good place to get some nice clothes at a good price. I'll take you there now, since the boys are going to go train with Kakashi-sensei." Sakura beamed. She hadn't been around girls as much since she had been training with Naruto and Sasuke for the past few weeks.

"B-but what about training, Sakura-chan?" Naruto said pleadingly.

"You two need it more than I do. I'll make these two feel welcome here." Sakura said pointing to Rica and Luca, who was still dazed.

"Fine, fine. I'll find you guys after we're done." Naruto said.

"Lets go." Sasuke said as he started to walk away.

"I'll see you all later." Naruto waved and ran after Sasuke shouting something that the three girls didn't understand.

"Don't mind Naruto and Sasuke, they're good people." Sakura said.

"Okay." Rica smiled. "So where is this place you had in mind?"

"Oh, its this way." Sakura said pointing down the street. "Get your friend up and lets go."

"Alright." She looked down at Luca and kicked her. "C'mon lets go. We're going shopping."

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End of Chapter Three

**Review Responses -**

Ying and Yang Twins - You're my first reviewer, thank you! I'm glad you like the story thus far.

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Chapter four should be up this weekend. If not then, Monday. I'll be finding it harder to update as the summer goes on due to the fact that I got a job recently. It shouldn't take up much of my time, but I will finish the story.

Thank you again for reading!


	4. Obviously Unprepared

**Disclaimer** - I don't down Naruto, obviously.

**Author's Note** - Finished chapter four in less time than I expected. I'm hoping to come up with a good plot line soon, if not its just going to end up being random adventures, or misadventures. Chapter four might contain a bit of stupid fangirlism, so you've been warned.

**Chapter Four** - Obviously Unprepared

Meanwhile back in the real world the mysterious man sat on the park bench with the book on his lap. He sighed and looked up.

"Ladies and gentlemen. You might be wondering why the hell I am here. Well, the answer is simple. Our two young heroines needed a way to get to the Naruto timeline, and I was the one created for the job. I have no particular part in this story, not yet anyway. I'll show up in random chapters to give you tidbits of information, which will be mostly useless."

The man paused and held up the book.

"And now back to our scheduled chapter."

The man opened up the book. The birds eye view of Konoha was seen again as the view zoomed quickly to where Rica, Luca and Sakura were standing.

"Well, here we are." Sakura said, pointing to the shop. It was a small boutique with the words "sale" and "good prices" written on the windows.

"Good, good. Now let's shop." Rica said in a cheerful tone as she followed Sakura into the shop. She looked behind her to find Luca still standing outside.

"C'mon, lets go in." Motioned Rica from the door. Luca still remained petrified, oblivious to Rica's comment.

"Damn woman." Rica said as she stepped outside the shop only to grab her arm and pull her inside. Once inside Luca regained her senses and blinked as if she was placed in a ultra bright room.

"Hoo boy, I spaced out back there." Luca said rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.

"That you did." Said Sakura chiming in at the right moment. Luca looked at her and smiled before extending her hand. "Nice to meet you." She said in a partially ashamed voice.

"The name's Sakura." Sakura said proudly. "Now lets get to getting you two some nice clothes." She said as she sifted through a rack of tops.

Luca nodded and joined her as she was sifting through the tops and pulled out a few she thought looked interesting.

"These are nice." Luca said holding up a couple tops.

Sakura nodded and gave Luca a few others. She went back to the rack and picked out three tops for Rica and put them into her hands, which were already full as it was.

"Wow, looks like we're going to be here for a while." Rica said, with a tinge of disappointment in her voice.

"Nah, not that long." Sakura gave a sidelong glance at Luca who was struggling to hold onto all the clothes that have been given to her. Sakura gave her a slight push towards the dressing room. "Go, go. Try 'em on." She said cheerfully.

Luca was pushed into the fitting room. The sound of items falling was heard as she shut the door. Since there was only one available fitting room, Rica sat outside with Sakura as she was humming happily while looking at some clothes.

Minutes passed in silence before Sakura said something.

"So how was your stay here so far?" Sakura said, trying to find something to talk about.

"Interesting, to say the least." Rica said looking down at her collection of clothes. "The people here seem relatively nice. But I can't really say that for sure since I've only met you, Naruto and Sasuke."

"Well, you'll meet more people. I'll make sure of it. Do you know how long you'll be here?"

"No, our stay might be a long one, it could also be a very short one too." Rica said. _Shit, how long are we here for anyway?_ The thought had never occurred to her before. A slight feeling of fear went down her spine.

"Well, I hope its for a while. You and your friend seem like good people."

"Thank you." Rica said with a half-smile.

Moments later Luca came out wearing a red tank top with a black zipper, along with red semi-baggy pants with red trim.

"Nice." Said both girls in unison as Luca twirled stupidly and fell back into the fitting room, door shutting behind her.

Sakura and Rica exchanged glances and went back to chatting.

"So what are we going to do after this?" Rica said with a hopeful expression.

"Well, I was thinking about meeting up with the boys and Kakashi-sensei." Sakura said happily.

A second later the door opened and a half naked Luca fell out and ran up to Sakura.

"Really! Really, really?" She shouted excitedly.

"Uh..uh…yeah, that's what I had in mind." Sakura said looking up at Luca with a flabbergasted expression.

"Great! I'll be dressed in five or so minutes!" She said and ran back into the dressing room. The rustling of hangers could be heard.

"Luca is eccentric. Very eccentric." Rica explained to Sakura as she placed a hand on her shoulder. Sakura just sat there blinking for a few seconds.

"She reminds me of Naruto."

As soon as Sakura finished talking Luca had opened the door of the fitting room a little too loudly, which made both Sakura and Rica jump. She came out wearing her normal clothes as well as holding a few items she was planning to buy.

"Okay. All set. Rica get your ass in there and pick something soon so we can get out of here." Luca said sitting down to Sakura, who inched away slightly.

"Fine, fine. I won't be long." She said as she picked up her items and walked into the fitting room, shutting the door behind her, softly.

About ten minutes passed in complete silence, except for the anxious tapping of Luca's foot as she was impatiently waiting for Rica to finish trying on clothes.

Sakura looked down at Luca's foot, then at her face. _What if up with this girl? _She thought to herself as she noticed Luca looking right at her.

"Whatcha looking at?" She said, snapping Sakura out of her daze.

"N-nothing. I was just thinking."

"'bout what?"

"Well, why are you so excited to meet up with the boys again? Like 'em or something?" She gave Luca a nudge. _Better not be on Sasuke-kun, dammit. _The inner Sakura chimed in.

"I'm just excited to meet new people. You said that your sensei was going to be there." Luca said, smiling. This was the first time she said anything relatively normal.

"Well, he should." Sakura said plainly.

"Alright." Rica said as she opened the door of the fitting room. She had made her choice on clothing. "Lets pay."  
"Finally!" Luca said jumping up and running to the register.

They had made their purchases, with some money to spare. Luca ran outside the shop and spun around happily. Sakura and Rica followed her.

"Luca, stop that." Rica said grabbing her friend's arm.

"Okay guys, follow me." Sakura said leading the way. Rica and Luca followed close behind and were soon at the designated meeting place for team 7.

Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi were nowhere to be found.

"Well, I guess all we have to do is wait for them to come back. If they come back today that is." Sakura said sitting down.

"Okay." Luca said as she plopped herself down on the ground.

Rica took a seat under a tree and gazed up at the sky. Clouds were forming, large black ones.

"Looks like rain." She said casually to herself.

**--------------------------------------------------------------**

An hour had passed, and the sun was getting lower in the sky before the two boys had returned from training. Sakura was nodding off as Luca was sprawled out on the ground dozing happily. Rica was the only one awake and waved to the two as they walked up.

"Hello." She said as if shaken from a daze.

"Didn't expect you guys to be back so soon." Naurto said in his usual tone.

Sasuke didn't say anything, but narrowed his eyes at Rica, who did the same to Sasuke.

Wonder what his problem is… Rica thought as she hardened her gaze. She had nothing against him, but he obviously had something against her.

Naruto looked around and noticed Sakura and Luca dozing and took at seat next to Luca and gave her a few pokes.

"Ieee, mommy stop poking me. I don't want to wake up right nooowwww." Whined Luca as she twisted away from Naruto's poke. Naruto poked her harder, which woke Luca up.

"Nnn…I said I didn't want to wake…" She paused as she stared right into Naruto's face, who was obviously amused. "'allo." Was all she managed to blurt out as she just stared at him.

The two stared at each other for some time. After a few seconds, it turned into a starting contest. Both trying to outstare the other. Luca blinked after a few minutes of starting and Naruto jumped up.

"I won! Wooha!." He said triumphantly.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll beat you at something else." Luca said standing up to him. They were both the exact height, so they met eye to eye. The competitive tension rose between them.

"Fine! You're on!" Naruto yelled as he gave Luca a slight shove.

"Fine!" Luca added as she gave him a shove in return.

The two ran off into the bushes planning to do god-knows-what. Sakura, Sasuke and Rica remained. Rica looking a little dumbfounded.

"Fools." Said Rica and Sasuke in unison.

Rica gave a quick look to Sasuke, who gave her a cold glare in return. She quickly averted her attention to the still dozing Sakura.

Rica and Sasuke remained in silence for some time. The shouts of Luca and Naruto could be heard some ways off. It was Rica who broke the silence.

"You keep on giving me weird looks. What have I done to deserve such treatment when I have done absolutely nothing wrong." Rica said sternly.

Sasuke looked down at her, his expression hadn't changed one bit.

"I don't trust you." Was all he said.

"And why is that?"

"You're not from around here, you could easily be a spy." Sasuke said as he pulled out a kunai appeared right in front of Rica, holding the blade to her throat, cutting her skin slightly.

All Rica could do was look at him with eyes full of fear. She never expected him to do anything like this. And had no idea on how to react. Luckily Sakura had started to wake up and noticed the situation, quickly coming to Rica's side, shoving Sasuke out of the way.

"What are you doing?" She shouted, "Rica isn't an enemy."

"Y-yes…" Rica sputtered as she put a hand to the small cut on her throat. "I couldn't fight against you even if I tried." She said collecting her wits.

Sasuke got up and dusted off his clothes, putting the kunai away.

"I still don't trust you yet." He said, looking a bit defeated, but quickly turned back to his normal expression.

"There is no reason to hurt her, or the other one. They're both harmless, call it women's intuition." Sakura said in a matter-of-fact tone. This didn't seem to sway Sasuke's opinion one bit. It would take time for him to trust these two oddly dressed girls.

Rica stood up, trying to keep balance due to her legs being shaky and walked up to Sasuke, completely unafraid.

"I'm sorry if my presence here annoys you. But my friend and I have no other place to go, and we're perfectly happy here. So its either get used to us, or ignore us entirely."

"Fine with me." Said Sasuke. Taking the ignore option. He walked off and jumped up a tree to sit on a high branch.

"He's not always this cold." Sakura said giving a sad look up to where Sasuke was sitting.

"I know…" Rica started "I can tell in his personality. He reminds me of myself somewhat."

"Ah." Sakura said in a thoughtful tone.

Naruto and Luca came running back. Luca was covered in dust as Naruto was not.

"I can do anything better than you!" He proclaimed, his ego inflating.

All Luca could do was give an angry sneer/pout as she did her best to dust off her track uniform.

Rica heard a faint rustle as she noticed how quickly Luca's expression had changed to that of starry-eyed wonder, and jumped as she felt a foreign hand touch her shoulder.

"Some party. And who might you two be?" Said a masked ninja lazily.

**---------------------------------------------------------**

End of Chapter Four

Chapter five should be up shortly.

**Reviewer responses** -

**Neko Yumi** - Came out with chapter four sooner than I thought, hope you enjoy!

**----------------------------------------------------------**

C'mon, more reviews, you know you want to say something. Muwhahahahaha.


	5. Stupid Fangirls

**Disclaimer** - I do not own Naruto. Silly disclaimers

**Author's Note** - Keep in mind that when I wrote this, I was a tad tipsy. I should have changed some parts, but I thought it'd be funnier to keep them in, considering the weird frame of mind I was in at the time.

I'd like to know how I'm doing so far. So if you want to leave a quick review saying "its good" or "it sucks" go right ahead. I don't know how many chapters this'll run, but its far from over.

**-------------------------------------------------**

**Chapter Five** - Stupid Fangirl(s)

"Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, plan to introduce me to these lovely young ladies?" Kakashi said casually as Luca almost died of a heart attack. All Luca could do was stand there with her mouth open. The little hamster in her head was running at full speed.

Wow, he looks better up close, happy day, happy day, happy day. Hahahahahaha…" Luca thought as Kakashi cocked an eyebrow at her.

"…is she alright?" He asked to no one in particular as Luca stood there, mouth open, twitching every few seconds.

"She's fine." Sakura said shrugging. "The one that looks like she's having a fit is Luca. The one you're touching is Rica. We met them today as they were performing."

"Yeah, Rica has a nice voice." Naruto interjected.

Rica blushed at the compliment and became more conscious of the hand that gave a slight squeeze on her left shoulder.

"Is that so?" Kakashi asked, looking down at Rica.

Rica looked up and quickly looked down again, her face visibly red.

"I guess so." She added softly.

My brain is broken. She thought to herself as she visualized an egg being thrown against the wall. _So very broken. This is not like me at all. Damn it all._

She thought to herself as she visualized an egg being thrown against the wall. 

Sakura walked up to her sensei, and tapped his shoulder.

"There's something I have to talk to you about later." Sakura said softly. Kakashi nodded and walked over to Luca, who was still having a fit.

"Very strange." He muttered as he patted her head gently.

"Goddamnit." Rica said as she walked up to Luca and punched her in the arm. "Snap out of it. How many times do you have to do this in a day?"

Luca stopped twitching and looked around slowly. She hung her head low, clearly embarrassed.

"Sorry." She said, head still down.

"Whatever. Just try not to do that again. Its really embarrassing, for you and me." Rica said putting a hand on Luca's shoulder trying to make her friend feel a little better.

Sakura pulled Kakashi away from the two girls and lead him away from the rest of the group.

"I need you to keep Sasuke-kun away from them for a while. He doesn't trust him, and I'm worried something may happen to them. Though I know he wouldn't hurt them, its just…the twitching one might do something to piss him off." Sakura explained.

Kakashi nodded and looked at Sasuke, who was still sitting in the tree, clearly bored.

"Alright. I'll have a talk with him later." He said and turned back to the girls.

Sakura shrugged her shoulders and let out a sigh.

_I hope nothing happens_

Rica was trying to make Luca feel better as Kakashi met up with them again. He was wary as well to the strangely dressed girls, but didn't see them as any sort of threat, c'mon one of them had strange fits for no apparent reason. So he decided to make small talk with them.

"So, how old are you two?"

"I'm 19." Rica said with some weird satisfaction in her voice.

"18." Was all Luca managed to blurt out.

"So, where are you two from?" He asked, searching for more questions to ask.

"Well, I'd rather not talk about it now. Its not a nice story." Rica said, struggling to find something to say, since telling him they were from a different "universe" would be a little creepy. Make that very creepy.

"I see, I see." He said smiling through his mask.

Luca was having a hard time containing herself. But she managed to keep her cool.

Must…not…glomp…very…bad…idea…shit… Luca said as she stared at Kakashi. She wanted to glomp them all. Just because. Plus her horrid fan girl urges made it hard to keep her cool.

"So, where's a good place to eat?" Rica asked.

Naruto heard the word "eat" and ran to her as quickly as he could.

"Did someone say eat?" He said, with a hopeful expression.

"Yeah, do you know of a good place to eat."

Naruto's expression changed from hopeful to ecstatic.

"The Ichiraku Ramen, is a _wonderful_ place to eat." Naruto said, with a wide grin.

_I knew he'd say that._ Rica thought to herself looking at the boy, who had the same expression as Luca as she looked at Rica with hopeful eyes.

"Can we go?" She asked.

"Let's go." Rica said to everyone. "Naruto lead the way."

"Yeah!" Was all he said as he ran off in the direction of the Ichiraku Ramen.

**--------------------------------------------------------------**

Rica, Luca, Naruto and Kakashi all sat at the Ichiraku Ramen. Sakura and Sasuke had went home for the evening. Rica looked at her small amount of coins and looked at the prices.

"Looks like we can afford one bowl each Luca." She said with a dismal expression on her face.

"Sounds good to me." Luca said, looking at the menu.

Naruto and Kakashi already ordered and had their bowls sitting in front of them. Naruto was already slurping his bowl down with incredible speed.

"Never seen a guy eat ramen so fast in my life." Rica said staring at Naruto.

"He does that a lot." Kakashi said looking at Naruto as well, wondering how he could slurp hot ramen down so quickly without getting sick or burning his throat.

I guess some things will never be explained, that being one of them.

Both Kakashi and Rica shrugged their shoulders as they began to eat their meals.

**------------------------------------------**

A half an hour passed as everyone finished their meals. Naruto had eaten his fill as usual and had a bit of trouble walking around. The others appeared to be fine. Except for Luca, who had tried to eat her ramen as Naruto did.

"How does he do it?" She said feeling a little ill.

Rica shrugged and looked around. The sun had already went down and few people were on the streets.

The girls waved to Naruto and Kakashi as they wandered off in search for a place to stay. They had already spent most of the money they made on clothing and food, and had not enough to find a room for the night.

"Fuck." Rica said stopping in the middle of the street.

"What?" Luca said looking at her friend.

"We don't have any money for a room. Looks like we're out of luck tonight." Rica said looking around for a suitable place to sleep.

It didn't take long for the girls to find a place to sleep behind a building.

"Not bad. But not good either…" Rica said sitting down against the wall.

"Goodnight." Luca said happily as she curled up beside Rica and was asleep within minutes.

An hour had passed, and Rica was still awake. She couldn't stop staring at the dark clouds which had not gone away since earlier that day.

"Looks like rain…" She said before she dozed off.

**----------------------------------------------------------------**

Rica woke up sometime later to a drops of water on her face. She looked around startled, unsure of where she was. She calmed down once she saw Luca sleeping beside her, and the familiar sight of Konoha before her.

"Fuck…its raining." She said as she nudged Luca awake. "C'mon, we need to find a place to sleep, that won't get us wet."

Luca sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"Alright, alright." She stood up and stretched.

The two girls walked around Konoha for a while, in the rain. It wasn't raining that badly. A light drizzle. But the clouds above promised heavy rain, and the light rumble of thunder confirmed it. Few people were out, and those who were out were walking home from the bars, which were closing their doors. Rica looked down at her watch, which read a little after 11:30.

A bolt of lightning lit of the area around them as Luca jumped and grabbed Rica's arm.

"Shit, you don't have to do that." Rica growled as Luca still clung to her.

"Sorry, I hate lightning."

"Well, I think its nice." Rica replied.

Rica sighed as she dragged Luca along the street in search for a place to sleep. After a half an hour of searching, Rica gave up and collapsed under an overhang which overlooked an apartment complex.

"Guess this is better than no place at all." Rica said as she sat down and looked in her bag to see if their clothes were still dry. Which they were.

"Goodnight again, Rica." Luca said as she curled up again by her friend and was asleep within minutes. Rica secretly envied Luca's ability to fall asleep in almost every situation.

It didn't take too long for Rica to fall asleep. It was cold and rainy, but she didn't care. Sleep was more important than keeping dry.

**-----------------------------------------------------**

An hour later the rain began to fall at a heavier pace, the wind blew faster, and changed directions quickly, but the two girls still slept.

Kakashi was making his way home from spending time with Gai. Gai had kept him up with stupid bets, but he had finally gotten away from him, saying he needed to wake up early in the morning - which he didn't. He was tired and cursing the rain.

He made it to the door of his home as he noticed two figures crouched by a building. Curious, he went in for a closer look, and to his surprise, Rica and Luca lay sleeping in front of him.

"I guess it makes sense." He said to himself as he looked at the two girls. Luca twitched slightly in her sleep.

He crouched down and gave Rica a tap on the shoulder. She didn't budge, so he tapped her again, a little harder. Rica moved slightly and swatted his hand away in her sleep.

"Stubborn." He said, amused as he poked her again.

"Dammit…" Rica said, still in her sleep.

Kakashi gave up on Rica and started to poke Luca, who only rolled away from his pokes and muttered something about Naruto and biting off his finger if he ever poked her again. Sighing, Kakashi just decided to shake Rica out of her dormant state.

"Wake up." He said as he shook her.

Rica's eyes snapped open as she let out a yell. Kakashi quickly put a hand over her mouth.

"Don't yell." He said as he removed his hand.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Rica said between breaths.

"I should be asking you that. Why are you two sleeping outside in the rain?"

"Well…" Rica said unsure on what to say. "The truth is…we don't have anywhere to stay tonight. We don't have enough money for a room since we used it on clothing and dinner."

"Wake up your friend, I don't want you two to die out here in the cold." He said getting up and extending his hand to Rica.

Rica took it and stood up.

"Where are we going?" She asked using her foot to nudge Luca awake.

Luca rolled over and growled in her sleep. Rica kicked her this time and woke her up.

"Hey…" She said as she looked up and saw Rica and Kakashi. Luca's eyes went wide as her mouth hung open.

"There's no time for that." She said as she kicked her again. "So where are we going again?"

"I guess there's no other place to go than my home." He said feeling odd having two girls in his house late at night. "I don't want you two dying out here."

"Y-you don't have to do that." Luca said looking up at him.

"I'd feel bad if I didn't. Now lets go before you both catch colds."

Rica and Luca got up as they were told and followed Kakashi to his home. They were grateful for his kindness, but they were actually quite fine outside. They just didn't want to disappoint him, or make him feel bad.

Kakashi opened the door and let them in. He sighed as he went into another room and threw them both shirts.

"Bathroom is down the hall, go change in there." He said as he walked into the kitchen.

Rica and Luca found the bathroom and quickly changed their shirts, which weren't even that wet.

"Its nice that he's letting us stay here for the night. It was kinda cold out there anyway." Luca said as she dried off her hair.

"True. But he didn't have to. I'm surprised he's this nice." Rica said as she did the same thing.

It didn't take long for the girls to dry themselves off. They walked out to the living room and took a seat on the small couch that was there. Kakashi arrived a few minutes later and sat on a chair directly in front of them.

"So, why are you two really here?" He said in a serious tone.

Rica and Luca looked at each other for a moment. Rica was the first to speak.

"Even if I told you, you wouldn't believe me." She finally said.

"Try me."

"Alright."

Rica started to explain from the beginning. After she was done, Kakashi sat there scratching his head and looking at the two girls with a confused look on his face.

"You could have simply said you two were from another village." He said, still looking at them.

"Well, what I told you is the truth, sir." Rica said seriously.

"I really have no room to argue. I'll believe you." He said. "And you don't have to call me sir."

"Alright." Rica said leaning back on the couch. "Thank you for your hospitality." She said, softly.

"Its no problem. I'll take the couch you two take the bed. Its not that big, but its more comfortable than what you're sitting on." He said calmly, while on the inside he was cursing himself for suggesting that they take the bed. He hated the couch since whenever Gai would come to his home drunk he'd take the bed from him.

"Thank you again." Luca said softly as she looked down at her fingers.

"Your friend is strange." Kakashi said to Rica, which made Luca's cheeks go tomato red.

"I'm not that strange…" She said trailing off. "…well, maybe I am."

Kakashi beat himself up mentally for embarrassing the girl.

Dammit.

He didn't mean to hurt her feelings. It just came out.

"I apologize." He said looking at Luca.

"Oh, I get it all the time. I am strange, so its no big deal." She said quickly with a smile. "If its not too much trouble I'm gonna go to bed. Which way is the bed room?"

"Down the hall, to your right. There's an extra blanket in the closet if you need it."

"Thank you. Goodnight." Luca said bowing as she hurried off to the bedroom.

**-------------------------------------------**

Luca stood in the bedroom looking around. She was still in that frame of mind that everything around her was still a dream. She sat on the bed and sighed. It was the first time since they arrived that she had been alone. Looking around she was the room was in good order, Kakashi wasn't a slob as she expected. She laughed quietly to herself as she walked to the closet and pulled out an extra blanket and walked back to the bed. She sat down again and pulled off her shoes and socks and took off her pants and folded them nicely. She didn't want to ruin the sheets with her dust-ridden pants.

Sighing she slipped under the covers and pulled them up to her chin. She stared up at the ceiling as the glow of the streetlamps bathed the ceiling in a soft yellow glow. It didn't take long till she fell asleep soundly.

**--------------------------------------------**

"I'm sorry I embarrassed your friend." Kakashi said slightly embarrassed himself.

"I don't think you embarrassed her. It takes a lot to embarrass Luca." Rica said cheerfully.

"Okay." He said as she shifted in his chair.

"You don't have to sit there if its uncomfortable." Rica said as she shifted to make more room on the couch.

"Its okay." He said sitting still again.

Rica didn't believe him and stood up and pulled him on the couch. She sat down at the end and sighed.

"I'm not stupid." She said flatly.

"Alright, alright. Shouldn't you get to bed?" Kakashi said as he looked to the clock. He was getting tired.

"I'm not sleepy yet, or anymore at least." She said. "You woke me up, remember."

"Only because I didn't want you two sleeping out on the street." He argued.

"Understandable. I feel bad for everything."

"No need. I don't mind."

"Thank you again." Rica said softly.

"No more thank yous, its time for bed." He stood up and nudged her off the couch.

"Alright." Rica said as she hurried off to the bedroom.

She went into the bedroom and took a pillow off the bed and hurried out to the living room to find that Kakashi wasn't there. Rica sighed and placed the pillow on the couch and went back to the room. She looked around the room the same way Luca did and slid into bed. Rica smiled at the pictures that were placed on the bed stand and sighed.

"Must be nice living here." She said in a dreamy voice before putting her head down to sleep.

Smiling at the picture again Rica put her head down on the pillow, seconds later she was asleep.

**------------------------------------**

Kakashi came out of the bathroom yawning, ready to go to bed when he noticed the pillow on the couch.

"That's nice…" He said as he sat down setting the pillow where he wanted it.

"Not bad at all…" He said as he laid his head down to sleep.

What did I get myself into? He thought as he closed his eyes.

Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.

**---------------------------------------------------**

End chapter Five

Heheh, it was longer than I expected it to be. Chapter six should be out sometime this week. The chapters are becoming longer and longer it seems. Which is good.

**Review Responses** -

**Jackson** - Thank you very much! It shouldn't take too long to get the entire story written out. :3

**Blighton** - Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Its kinda like Fushugi Yuugi in the sense of the book, but I didn't have much else to go on. XD Things should be interesting, I hope. Whatever comes out of my mind I guess.

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Thank you for reviewing! Don't be shy to drop a comment!


	6. When the Morning Comes

**Disclaimer** - I do not down Naruto. But I do own any original character in the story, so hands off. :D

**Author's Note** - Sorry for the laziness. Haven't had the time, energy or motivation to write this chapter. Don't know why, perhaps my ideas are running low. I'm running on whatever twisted idea that runs through my head. And hopefully that's enough to make this the most fucked up story ever - with style! (I can only hope)

Clarification -

--------------- Scene changes, mostly.

Thoughts

----------------------------------------

**Chapter Six** - When the Morning Comes

----------------------------------------

Rica was the first to wake. She yawned and rolled over away from Luca and hugged her pillow. It smelled of Kakashi.

"He smells nice. Nicer than most guys I've known." She thought as she turned on her back.

She had slept soundly throughout the night. It was the first time in months that she was able to sleep soundly. Yawning, she got out of bed and staggered half-awake, to the bathroom.

Rica stood before the mirror, her brown hair sticking up at all angles. Sighing she found a brush and combed it through her hair, making it fall loosely around her shoulders. After making herself presentable she walked out of the bathroom and went into the living room to find that Kakashi was not on the couch. Scratching her head, Rica walked into the kitchen to find two cups of insta-ramen on the kitchen table along with a note. Rica picked up the note and read its contents.

"Left for business. Just add hot water to the ramen. I trust you not to burn down my house. Don't leave till I get back."

The note had not been signed, but Rica knew exactly who it was wrong and set it down to get a pan to boil hot water in.

After scrounging around for a pan Rica sighed and set one on the stove. Instead of starting on the food right away, she decided to take a tour of Kakashi's small, but humble home. It was a typical bachelor pad, but cleaner. He was either a clean person, or didn't spend a lot of time at home. After taking a mini tour, Rica wandered back into the kitchen to start on breakfast.

She set the stove on medium and filled the pan with water and set the pan on the stove, waiting for the water to boil. This being obviously boring, Rica went back into the bedroom to get her new clothes.

Rica took her clothes into the bathroom and set them by the sink and opened the bag to see if its contents was still okay. Seeing that everything was in order, Rica went back into the kitchen, poured the water into the insta-ramen cups and covered them.

"Reminds me of home." She said aloud to herself as she paced the kitchen. It would take at least three minutes for the ramen to be ready, so Rica went back into the living room, folded the blankets that were on the couch and returned them to the bedroom.

Luca was already awake by this time and was sitting up in bed reading one of Kakashi's make out paradise books.

"You know, he doesn't appear to be that pervy, but this proves it." Luca said with a weird expression on her face as she scanned the pages of the book. "Nice plot, but its just…just…"

"You don't have to tell me." Rica said as she opened the closet to put the blankets away.

"Kakashi left us food, and told us not to leave until he gets back. I'm not going to question it, besides, we have a place to stay it seems. Even if it is temporary." Rica said sitting on the bed. She snatched the book from Luca's hands and put it back where it originally was.

"So what'd he leave." Luca said reaching for the book again, only to have Rica stop her.

"Ramen."

"I'll be up in a minute." Luca said as she flew out of bed and into the bathroom.

"Should have said it sooner." Rica said as she fixed the bed and sat down again. She eyed the book on the bed stand and sighed. "Strange book." She got up and went to the kitchen.

------------------------------------------------

Before Rica was awake

Kakashi rolled off the couch and groaned. The couch was not a pleasant place to sleep, but he could not subject two girls to it either. Yawning loudly he put on his headband and tip-toed into his room to get a clean change of clothes. After getting dressed he walked into the kitchen, took out the ramen and scribbled a note before quickly leaving the apartment and locking the door behind him.

"What should I do about those two…" He said as he shielded his eye against the morning sun. The storm from last night had dissipated and a clear blue morning greeted the village of Konoha.

Kakashi needed to talk to Sasuke about his actions towards Rica, and wasn't really looking forward to it. He also needed to supervise Naruto and Sasuke's training for the day. He didn't have to do much, just show them what they needed to do and watch the two compete against each other to see who could master the skill the fastest.

He had some time to spare as he wandered around the village. Infact he had a lot of time to spare, since it was only a little bit after 8:00am. He had to meet his students at 10:00am. Sighing and putting his hands in his pockets he walked past a bookstore and noticed that the newest Make Out Paradise was on sale. Smiling he walked into the store.

------------------------------------------

"That wasn't enough to be considered breakfast!" Luca whined as she licked the sides of the cup.

"That's all that was given. It wouldn't be right to go into his fridge and help ourselves." Rica said as she was disposing of the cup and cleaning up the rest of the kitchen.

"Since we're going to be stuck here until he gets back, lets do something with our time." Rica said looking around the kitchen. "I know, lets clean this place up. It shouldn't take long."

"But…but…" Luca whined.

"You don't have to. I'll do it to keep myself busy." Rica said looking around for a broom and cleaning cloths.

"Alright." Luca shrugged and went back into the bedroom. She was clearly bored.

--------------------------------------------

It was 11:30am as Kakashi walked out of the bookstore.

"Shit, I'm late again." He said as he was walking in the direction of their meeting place. "They should be used to it by now."

--------------------------------------------

Rica sat on the floor of a now spotless apartment. It didn't take long for her to clean it up, since it really didn't need much cleaning.

"Well, that was easy. Now for a shower."

--------------------------------------------

Kakashi strolled up to his students, waved and went straight into what they had to do today. After explaining what they had to do, he pulled Sasuke off to the side for a moment.

"About your actions yesterday…" Kakashi started.

"I know, I was wrong. I shouldn't have threatened her, and I'm sorry." Sasuke said not looking at his teacher.

"You should tell her that. She doesn't seem shaken up over the whole ordeal, but it would be nice for you to say it to her, personally." Kakashi finished, looking directly at Sasuke.

Sasuke felt his teacher's hard stare and looked right at him, giving the same stare in return. This did not effect Kakashi, since he was already used to Sasuke's cold stares, glares, and everything in between.

"Just as long as we have an understanding. Now go off with the others." Kakashi said, his cold stare now a cheerful expression.

Sasuke sighed as he walked away from his teacher. He hadn't meant to hurt Rica, but only to scare her since she did appear to be suspicious after all. Shaking his head he met up with Naruto and began his training exercises.

--------------------------------------------

About three hours had passed, and Rica had nothing to do. She already showered and changed into her new clothes. She was standing by a full length mirror admiring how her clothes fit her. She wore a simple gray shirt with a zipper down the front with a black mesh under shirt that was rather comfortable with black pants. She didn't care what it looked like on her, just as long as it was within her price range. She was happy that she was clean and was wearing clean clothes.

Luca was still in bed reading that damn book Rica took from her. Rica hadn't read it, so she didn't have any opinion on it, but Luca appeared to be enjoying it, almost as much as Kakashi.

-------------------------------------------

Kakashi sighed as he leaned against a tree observing Naruto and Sasuke pushing themselves has hard as they could to see which one could do the best. Sakura was going at her own pace, barely paying attention to the two boys. Except for times when she'd stop to stare at Sasuke, blush to herself and continue training.

Stretching, Kakashi walked over to Sakura who was taking a break and stood next to her for a few minutes before saying anything.

"I'm going to go and check on the girls." He said staring off into the distance.

"What?" Sakura said looking up at her sensei.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you guys. Found Rica and Luca outside in the rain, let them stay at my place instead of freezing to death outside. Left them there and told them to wait till I got back. Now I'm getting worried about how the inside of my home is going to be…" He trailed off thinking of what destruction Luca was capable of and shuddered slightly. Rica would be able to contain her, since she appeared to be the most level-headed of the two.

"I had a feeling they didn't have anywhere to stay…" Sakura felt bad for not saying anything sooner. Maybe she could have prevented them from staying out in the cold.

"Well, time to do damage patrol." Kakashi said as he was walking away.

Sakura sat there looking at Naruto and Sasuke train even harder.

"Boys will be boys, I guess." Sakura said as she sat up and dusted off her pants.

-------------------------------------

Kakashi appeared in front of his door and fished in his pocket for the key and put it in the lock.

One…two…three…

He opened the door and stood there in shock for a few seconds. He was expecting the worst, but his house was in even better condition when he left it. Walking around he could see that whoever cleaned did a good job at it too. Searching the entire house he walked into his bedroom and saw the two girls sitting. Rica was brushing her hair in front of the mirror and Luca was intently reading Kakashi's book.

"So you find that series interesting?" He said with a smile behind is mask.

Rica and Luca jumped, not expecting him to be home anytime soon.

"Y-y-you're back." Rica stammered as she pulled the brush from her hair. Luca shocked, but went from back to reading.

"I see your friend likes the book." He said jerking his head towards Luca. "I'm also guessing that you were the one that did all the cleaning." He said looking at her.

"Y-yes I did. It wasn't that hard since you kept this place pretty clean as it is." Rica said looking at herself in the mirror.

"Thank you." Kakashi said as he put a hand on her head.

Rica turned a light shade of pink due to the comment and smiled.

"It wasn't any trouble. It was something to do."

"Well, for you guys being good, and not destroying the place, how about I take you to dinner and perhaps something afterwards." Kakashi said, it was the least he could do.

"That'd be nice." Rica smiled.

"Dinner? Like a date?" Luca's head shot up from the book instantly.

"Not a date, a reward." Kakashi blinked at the girl's forwardness.

"Awww…it'd be nice to go out on a date with you." Luca said in a teasing tone.

"Knock it off." Rica snapped at Luca, who had buried her nose back into the book.

Rica turned around to see the man blushing slightly and couldn't help but laugh a little.

"What?" Kakashi said confused.

"Nothing, nothing. How's ramen sound?" Rica said. Even though they've had ramen for the past few days, there was something about the ramen in Konoha that was just excellent.

"Good. Good." Kakashi was glad that the girls only knew of ramen, otherwise he'd probably be broke by nightfall. "Get dressed, or ready, or whatever you girls do and we'll go." He looked at Luca. "And I'll be needing that book, you should start with the first one if you're interested in it."

Luca nodded and gave the book to Kakashi.

"So where's the first book?"

"I'll give it to you later." Kakashi said putting the book in its correct area.

Luca smiled and jumped out of bed. She still hadn't dressed. She picked up her bag of clothes and ran into the bathroom, the door slamming behind her.

Both Kakashi and Rica winced as the door shut.

"She's loud."

"That's an understatement." Rica said as she finished brushing her hair.

Ten minutes later they were all walking to the Ichiraku ramen for an early dinner. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were already there. Sakura and Sasuke were walking Naruto slurp down his second bowl of ramen.

"Hello, hello." Sakura said waving to the three.

"Hello." Kakashi said as he left the three girls go off and chat. He kept a close eye on Sasuke, who seemed oblivious of the entire situation, when he wasn't.

Kakashi sat down and ordered for the girls.

I doubt they care what they get

"So, Kakashi-sensei was telling me that you two got to stay in his house last night." Sakura asked, starting off the conversation.

"Yeah, he woke me up out of a sound sleep and dragged us inside. It was raining, but I didn't really mind. It was really nice of him to take us in." Rica explained.

"You should have said something if you didn't have a place to stay. I would have helped you guys out." Sakura said slightly disappointed.

"I didn't want to burden anyone, I don't know about Luca." Rica said looking over at Luca, who was staring at Naruto eating.

Sakura leaned in closer to Rica and whispered into her ear.

"Did you see what was behind the mask? Naruto and I have been wondering for a while now."

"No, sadly I didn't. He slept in the living room and we took his bed." Rica said with a sad expression.

Now I want to find out…dammit.

"Girls, food's ready." Kakashi said from his seat waving to the girls.

Rica poked Luca's arm sharply.

"Time for food."

"Whoot!" Luca shouted as she took the seat next to Kakashi.

It didn't take long for the girls to finish.

They're getting good at it Kakashi thought as he saw the bowls of ramen he ordered gone in less than five minutes.

"Looks like you two are getting the hang of it." Naruto said a few seats down.

"Yep. Yep." Luca said with a satisfied expression on her face. "I'll beat you in no time."

"Never!" Naruto shouted and slammed his fist on the counter.  
"Oh yeah!" Luca said in retaliation.

"Oh no, not this again." Rica put her head on the counter and Kakashi put a hand on her shoulder.

"Some things never change." Rica said with her head down.

"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked.

"Luca has a competitive streak in her. Naruto awakened it."

"Oh." He said looking at the shouting girl. He could see it, even a blind man would see it.

"Seeing that you two are done how about a drink?" He paused for a second. "How old are you two again?"

"19. Almost 20." Rica said her head still down.

"18." Luca said as she paused for a moment to answer his question, then went back to shouting at Naruto.

"Old enough I guess." He shrugged and got up. "C'mon you two."

They looked old enough. And the legal drinking age was 20. Kakashi didn't care, he needed a drink, so he decided to drag them along, even if they didn't want anything.

Rica followed his lead and dragged Luca unwillingly to where ever Kakashi was taking them. Luca still wanted to argue with Naruto, but Sasuke and Sakura were dragging Naruto off to where ever just as they were leaving.

"Here we are." Kakashi said as he pointed to a small bar. It wasn't very crowded, at least from what it looked like on the outside. "Lets go in."

Rica and Luca followed Kakashi into the bar. Instead of taking his normal place at the bar, he walked over to a table near the corner and sat down. Rica and Luca joined him a couple seconds later.

"Wow, what an interesting place." Rica said looking around. Not too many people were in there. She pictured drunks and bar fights and the stench of cigarette smoke. But none of those things were present.

A waitress appeared at their table a few minutes later.

"Three of the usual." Kakashi said casually. The girl took note of it and walked away.

"That was easy." Rica said

"Yeah, it was." Kakashi said, sort of proud.

As they were waiting two men walked in the bar, obviously intoxicated. One man was tall and lanky while the other one was shorter, but almost as skinny.

"Dude, get out of my way." Grunted the taller man.

"Yo, Ary lay off." Said the shorter man, giving Ary a shove.

"You fucking bastard, you pushed me, you bastard." Ary shouted, staggering to get balanced.

"You didn't get out of my way, that's what you get." The shorter man pushed Ary again, this time a little harder.

"Yo, Shinneri stop it." Ary said trying to balance himself again.

"Make me." Shinneri said trying to egg Ary on.

"Fucking bastard." Ary lunged towards Shinneri.

Shinneri being the most sober of the two simply dodged Ary's assult and laughed.

"You're a fool Ary, go back home to mommy."

"Bastard." Ary said as he went back to try again.

Shinneri extended hit foot, which landed a direct hit with Ary's groin. Ary stopped dead in his tracks, the expression on his face frozen. Shinneri removed his foot and pushed Ary slightly, which caused him to fall over.

Ary suddenly came out of his frozen state and rolled around in pain.

"You kicked me in my nuts, you fucking bastard…oh!" Ary moaned in pain as Shinneri grabbed the collar of his shirt and dragged him to a table.

"Baka." Shinneri said as he left Ary to roll around on the floor near the table.

Rica and Luca looked on, with blank expressions on their faces.

"Ary and Shinneri come in sometimes. Never seen them both drunk before coming in here though." Kakashi said as he took the drinks from the waitress and set them down. He nodded politely and pushed the other two glasses to Rica and Luca.

"What is it?" Luca said looking at the cup's contents.

"Sake." Kakashi said.

"Oooohhh." Luca said as she took a sip and cringed. "Not what I was expecting. Its interesting."

Kakashi nodded and looked at Rica, who hadn't taken a sip yet.

"Sake eh? I've tried some where I come from. I wonder if this stuff is any different." She said as she took a sip, and to her surprise it was the same. "Its good." She smiled at Kakashi who managed to take a sip of his own without removing the mask.

He' s good Rica thought.

"Thank you for taking us out tonight." Rica said as she finished her glass.

"No problem. Like I said you two deserved it."

Luca nodded as she downed the last of her sake. She had never tried an alcoholic beverage before and was starting to feel a bit woozy.

"Woooo. Good stuff. Kakashi-sir. Thank you much." Luca said with a silly grin.

_Shit. _Was all Kakashi could say in his mind as he looked at the young girl.

"Looks like she can't hold her liquor." Rica mused at Luca. Luca just snorted at her and spaced out.

Kakashi drew the attention of the waitress and ordered two more drinks and sent her off again. The waitress came back minutes later with two more glasses of sake.

"One more for the road." Kakashi said as he gave Rica the other glass.

"Thank you." She said taking it.

Kakashi had already finished his glass, again without Rica seeing him without his mask. She sighed and drank the contents in the glass rather quickly and setting it down on the table with a "thump"

"Ready to go?" Kakashi said looking at Rica.

"Yep. Looks like Luca is ready to go to."

Luca was clearly drunk. She was having a hard time keeping her head up.

"Poor thing, I won't take her drinking that's for sure." Rica said as she got up.

Luca followed Rica's idea of getting up and fell down in the process. Kakashi extended his hand to Luca, who reluctantly took it.

Kakashi paid for the drinks and dragged Luca out of the bar. Rica stood there for a few seconds before leaving. She could hear Ary and Shinneri bantering back and forth to each other from the other side of the room. She smirked and left the bar to find that Kakashi had Luca over his shoulder.

"I don't think she can walk." He said.

"Alrighty." Rica nodded as he followed him.

"Looks like you two are staying at my place again. I can't dump you off at someone else's house, especially with your friend like this." He jerked his head to the twitching mass on his shoulder.

"Thank you so much. I feel bad though." Rica said looking at the ground.

"Why?"

"We must be a burden to you, and that's the last thing I want to be to someone." Rica said looking up at him.

"Don't worry about it." He said with a smile.

_In fact you two proved that you are not burdens. _He thought to himself as he shifted Luca's weight on his shoulder. Luca gave out a stupid giggle and kicked her feet a little.

"Pretty sensei, pretty sensei." She said between giggles.

Rica's face reddened in embarrassment for her poor intoxicated friend.

Kakashi paid no mind to Luca's drunken ramblings as he made his way to the apartment.

-----------------------------

Kakashi put Luca on the bed and felt her forehead.

"She'll have a hangover in the morning." He said looking at the still twitching mass that occasionally giggled "pretty sensei."

"How are you feeling?" He turned to Rica who was looking at a bookshelf.

"Oh…I'm alright I guess. A little dizzy, just a buzz." She said her attention still on the books.

"Well, you two, get to bed." He said as he got off the bed and walked to Rica. He picked her up and set her on the bed next to her twitching friend.

"Get some sleep. Thank you for cleaning today." He said with a smile.

Rica blushed slightly at the kindness and smiled.

"Goodnight." She said, her eyelids suddenly becoming heavy.

"Goodnight." Kakashi said before leaving the bedroom.

He shut the door on the two girls and sighed. He didn't really mind having them stay, but the fact that he had to sleep on the couch again wasn't sitting well with him. He looked at the couch and groaned before laying down on it.

He took out a copy of his favorite book from between the cushions and started to read. It didn't take long before he too fell asleep.

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**End chapter.**

I know, corny ending. I'll come up with something better, I promise. Maybe Luca getting drunk again and doing something stupid - who knows.

**Reviewer Responses -**

**Rishan** - Glad you like it! bows

**Raymond** - Hopefully the clarifications clear up a few things. I think I also talked to you about a couple of the other things you had asked me. Thanks for reading.

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**Thank you all for reading, I really appreciate it.**


	7. What the Hell?

**Disclaimer** - I do not own Naruto obviously. Though I do own, Rica, Luca, Shinneri and Ary. (Shinneri and Ary are minor characters) and the mysterious man in black. Who we will find out his identity soon enough.

**Author's Note** - Chapter seven already. Its funny how I kept this story going. I should go on for another five chapters if I am lucky. Questions in the story will be answered, as well as new twists and weird happenings. I'm going to try for a more comedic chapter, lets see how it goes.

**Clarification** -

---------------- Scene changes mostly.

Thoughts

Whatever else

(inner Sakura)

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**Chapter Seven** - What the hell?

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Luca slept fitfully that night, perhaps a little too fitfully. She was twisting and turning and even throwing a few good punches that had hit Rica in the stomach, ribs or face. Having enough, Rica took a blanket, pillow and walked out of the room. She walked into the living room to find that Kakashi was asleep. She was tempted to wake him, but what good would it do? She shrugged and set her pillow down right near the doorway to Kakashi's bedroom and fell asleep there.

In the morning Kakashi had a surprise waiting for him. He almost stepped on the sleeping Rica and blinked. He was surprised to see her there, as was glad that he did not step on her. Seeing that she was sound asleep, he picked her up and put her on the couch.

"Better than the floor at least." He said to himself. He considered sleeping on the floor a few times, but decided against it.

Kakashi yawned and stretched and looked out the window. He didn't have to meet up with his students today, but he still woke up early. Sighing, he tip-toed to his bedroom to find that Luca was rolling around in her sleep.

_No one she wanted to sleep out there._

He got dressed, looked to see if the girls were okay and left. They would be alright by themselves, they were old enough to be on their own. Today was his day off and he wanted to disappear for a while.

----------------------------------------

Some hours later…

Rica rolled onto her side and rolled off the couch with a "thud". Rubbing her head she got up, a little disoriented. She realized where she was and sat back on the couch.

"…What a dream." She said aloud looking at her knees. A small part of Rica was homesick, and a little worried about what people would do when they realized she was gone. It would probably take a week for her mother and father to realize that she was no where to be found. They rarely talked to her. She didn't know about Luca, since she didn't talk about her family. She'd talk about other things.

Standing up and stretching, Rica shook off those feelings and went to take a quick shower.

While Rica was showering, Luca's eyes snapped open as she shot out of bed.

"Ugh…what a night." She said as she got up. She took a few steps before she fell flat on her face. Her balance was still off, obviously.

"God damnit…" Luca said as she sat up. Her head was still fogged up, but she didn't feel that bad.

Bracing herself using the bookcase, Luca stood up and walked slowly to the kitchen to get a glass of water. To her surprise there were to glasses by the sink with a note under one of the glasses. Luca hobbled over took the note and read it aloud.

"Gone for the day, feel free to come and go as you please. There is a key by the door, don't lose it."

"That's nice…" Luca said as she turned on the faucet and got some water. "I don't feel like going out today anyway…" She said as she made her way back to the bedroom.

Luca set the glass on the bed stand and hobbled over to the bookcase to look for the first book of Icha Icha Paradise. Finding it, Luca sat back down on the bed and got comfortable. She had no reason to leave today, but was more interested in reading that book.

Rica got out of the shower and got dressed, she wandered into the kitchen and saw the note that Luca previously read. She was happy to be able to leave today, since there was no reason to stay in. Rica smiled and walked to the bed room to find Luca awake.

"I'm going out." Rica said as she tied her hair back.

"Alright, I'll be here." Luca said barely looking up from the book.

"You and that stupid book, I swear." Rica said as she put on her shoes and got up. "I'll be back before nightfall."

"Alright." Luca said, still disinterested in what Rica was saying.

Rica shot Luca a cold glare and walked out. In a way she was happy to be able to wander around without her friend embarrassing her. Rica hummed happily to herself as she shut and locked the door behind her. It was a little after noon, and there was not a cloud to be seen.

"A clear blue day, how nice." Rica said as she wandered down the street. She was interested in seeing the sights and sounds of a busy village.

Two hours had passed and Rica was tired of walking around. She found a place to sit under the shade of a rather large tree. She shut her eyes for a little while and fell asleep.

Not much later, Rica opened her eyes as some young children ran past her.

_Academy students. _She thought with a smile on her face.

She watched the children run by, and a few seconds later a man was chasing after them.

Ah…Iruka. She thought as she got up. She was no longer tired. Dusting off her pants she went back to wandering.

------------------------------------------

Bored, Sasuke was also wandering around town. He didn't feel like training at the moment, besides a little relaxation didn't kill anyone. He saw Rica who was idly walking by some shops and took the opportunity to talk to her.

"Hello." He said calmly as he walked up to her.

Rica didn't look up right away, but when she did she gave a small jump.

"Hello." She said, equally as calm.

"I wanted to say sorry for threatening you a couple days ago…" He said, feeling slightly ashamed.

"Oh, no problem. It's a think of the past." Rica said smiling. She was slightly unnerved by the boy, but didn't let it show. He was kinda creepy.

"Alright." He said, slightly relieved "So what are you doing wandering around here?" He asked, looking at her.

"No reason. Kakashi left a note saying that we could come and go as we pleased. There was no reason to stay inside on which a beautiful day." Rica explained, her attention directed to what she was previously looking at before Sasuke arrived.

"I see." Was all he said as he directed his attention to what Rica was looking at.

Girls and clothes… He thought to himself as he looked at the outfit Rica was staring at.

"I know of a better place to go than here." He said, sparking Rica's attention.

"Where?" She asked.

"Follow me." Sasuke starting walking and Rica followed him.

Sasuke led Rica to a small stream, it was more relaxing than staring at clothes. Rica took off her shoes and socks and stuck her feet into the cold water.

"Its nice here." She said as she moved her feet around in the water.

"Yeah, I come here to think sometimes." Sasuke said from a tree. He didn't like sitting near the river, but in a tree over it.

"Thanks for taking me here, its really nice." Rica said as she was watching a fish swim around her ankles.

"No problem." Sasuke said as he lowered his headband, covering his eyes.

Rica sat there, listening to the sound of the stream and the other forest noises and sighed happily. It really was a nice day to be out. She took her feet out of the stream and walked over to a sunny patch and laid down.

_So warm…_

It didn't take long for Rica to fall asleep.

Sometime later Sasuke pulled his headband back up and looked around. He saw that Rica had fallen asleep. The sun had moved since she had laid down, so she was no longer covered in sunlight, but small little patches of it made by the gaps in the leaves.

Jumping down from the tree, Sasuke made his way over to Rica and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Wake up." He said, tapping her again.

Rubbing her eyes, Rica groaned and propped herself up on her elbows.

"How long was I out?" She asked groggily.

"No idea. Maybe you should get back to the village." He said as he extended his hand to her.

Rica took his hand and stood up.

"Thanks." She said, still sleepy.

"No problem. Follow me." He said as he started to walk back to the village.

Rica shrugged her shoulders and followed the boy once again.

Sasuke led her back to the village and waved to her and was off. Rica waved back and looked around. The sun wasn't near setting, but a lot of time had passed since she was with Sasuke. He wasn't that bad it seemed, he apologized, but he never said much to her.

"A man of few words." She said with a smile.

Looking around, she recognized the area she was in and walked back to Kakashi's apartment. Searching for the key she let herself in and shut the door behind her.

"Luca, you here?" She shouted.

"She's here." Said a familiar voice from the bedroom.

Rica walked to the bedroom to find Luca and Naruto having an arm wrestling contest. Rica stood there, her mouth open as the two were in the middle of a close match. It was Naruto who ultimately won.

"Phew. I almost lost." Naruto said as he shook his arm to get the feeling back into it.

"I almost won." Luca said disappointed.

"Well, you didn't. I won." Naruto said triumphantly.

"I'll get you next time."

"No you won't." Naruto said.

"Oh, yes I will." Luca said standing up.

"Won't."

"Will."

"Won't."

"Will."

"Won't"

"Shut up both of you." Rica said standing by the door.

Naruto and Luca looked at her and went back to arguing. Rica sighed heavily and gave up on them. It was useless to stop Luca when she was arguing with someone, and Naruto appeared to be the same way.

Rica could still hear the two arguing as she sat down on the couch and picked up a magazine off the coffee table.

"Hm. Current events…interesting."

Rica grew bored of the magazine quickly and set it back down on the table. There were other magazines on the table, but judging from the girls on the covers she didn't want to read them.

Twenty minutes had passed, and Luca and Naruto still were going at it. Though it seemed that Naruto was winning whatever those two were up to. Sighing, Rica leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, not even two minutes later, Kakashi was standing over her.

"Jesus Christ, where in the hell did you come from?" Rica shouted loudly.

"Huh? I live here." Kakashi said in a duh tone.

"But…but…you just appeared right in front of me. I didn't hear you open the door." Rica stammered.

"Oh. Don't mind that. Ninja stuff." He said as he walked into the bedroom.

Rica could only assume that Kakashi's expression was just like hers as he stood at the doorway. She was correct too.

"What in the hell is going on here?" Said Kakashi in a normal tone.

Luca and Naruto stopped wrestling and looked at Kakashi.

"Well, I'm trying to beat Naruto at something." She said shooting a death glare at Naruto.

"I'm winning." He said with a wide grin as he pinned Luca to the ground.

"See, I won."

"NO you didn't." Luca said using all her strength to push Naruto off her.

"I'll show you." He said as he pinned her back on the ground. Luca couldn't move no matter how hard she tried.

"Bastard…" She said through gritted teeth.

Naruto just grinned. He had fun competing against Luca.

"Don't be so mean." Naruto said, letting Luca get up. "Friends" He said extending his hand.

"Friends." Luca shook his hand and let it go.

Kakashi just looked at them in disbelief. Shrugging his shoulders he went back into the living room and sat down nice to Rica.

"No wonder you stayed out here." He said moving around his magazines and putting them under the coffee table.

"Already saw them." Rica said as she was looking at a newspaper.

"Oh." Kakashi said as he placed them back on the table.

Rica looked at the date on the newspaper and blinked.

"Is this today's date?" She said pointing to the date on the newspaper.

"Yes it is." Kakashi said looking at her.

"I guess that means my birthday is tomorrow." Rica said staring at the newspaper.

"Really, that's nice." Kakashi said. "We should celebrate it then."

"Really?" Rica set down the paper. She never really had a birthday party before. Her parents never really remembered her birthday until two or even three weeks later.

"Its settled then." Kakashi got up and disappeared in the hall.

"A birthday party? That'd be nice…" Rica said as she glanced at the paper on her lap. Now she couldn't wait for tomorrow to come.

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**End Chapter**

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Not as long as the last, but its good nonetheless. Should have chapter 8 done as soon as possible.

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**Review Responses** -

**Neko Yumi - **Yeah, I'm planning to change the perspectives around a bit in upcoming chapters. Around the last two or three should be completely devoted to what the other characters think or do.

**darkwolfslayer - **Thank you very much!

**Millenia7 - **Thank you very much! I tried to make it a little different than some of the universe fics I've read. Thank you again

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Thank you everyone for reading:D


	8. Hurt Feelings and a Birthday Party

**Disclaimer** - I own nothing of Naruto. Though I do own any original characters used within this story. Woosh.

**Author's Note** - Its winding down towards the end of this story. I'm thinking of making a sequel to this one. But that will come much later in the future, if time permits. I should have another two chapters, and a epilogue. I will try to add as much information into the last chapters as I can. :3

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**Chapter Eight** - Hurt Feelings and Birthday Party

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Rica had fallen asleep that night, to wake up only to find that she had been covered with a blanket. Looking around she noticed that Kakashi was on the floor beside her, fast asleep. Yawning she threw the blanket over him and tip toed off to change back into her old clothes while she went off to clean her new ones.

Kakashi rolled over in his sleep and banged his head on the leg of the coffee table. Slowly rolling over to his other side he got up. Groaning, he wandered over to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

Why did things have to become so complicated? He thought as he filled his glass.

Things have certainly changed. With the arrival of the two girls, his world had been turned upside down. No one would know it though, since he did a good job of hiding his feelings on the matter. It would be so easy to hate the girls for ruining his way of living, but he opened himself up to it the moment he went over to see that they were okay that one night. Besides, he could not hate their smiling faces. Especially Luca's way of turning anything into something funny. And Rica's way of handling her friend. Rica was wise beyond her years and hid a lot about herself. He found it easy to relate to her for some reason. All she needed was a friend that understood it. And Luca wasn't the best choice for that.

Shaking his head, dispersing his thoughts Kakashi went back to the living room to find that Rica wasn't there, paying no mind, he sat down with the newspaper and began to read. Luca held his Icha Icha Paradise books hostage, so he had nothing else to read.

Kakashi flipped through the paper without reading anything, his mind was on trying to find a way to give Rica a nice birthday, without overdoing it.

_Maybe she misses her family? _He thought as he flipped through the classified section. _She has never spoke of them, and when she has, it wasn't in a good light…so count that out._

After flipping through the entire paper, Kakashi set it down and leaned back on the couch. He had little to no idea on what to do for someone's birthday, let alone for himself and his close friends. Someone he barely knew was even harder.

"I got it." He said aloud after ten minutes of silence.

He decided that a simple gathering of those she knew would be good enough for a birthday. He'd go and tell Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura that it was her birthday, and it was their mission to make it a happy one. This would take some of the pressure off himself. He smiled from behind his mask and got up to get some breakfast.

Meanwhile…

Rica was busy putting her new clothes on a line in the very small 10x10 foot backyard that belonged to Kakashi.

"Not much room to move around back here." She said to herself as she picked up some clothes pins and strung up her pants. After hanging up everything she went inside to wake Luca up.

Luca was already awake, she was reading Kakashi's book. And from the looks of it she never went to bed last night.

"Have you been reading that damn book all night?" Rica asked as she sat down on the bed.

"Yeah…" Luca said uninterested in what Rica had to say.

"You're still on the first one and it looks like you haven't made any progress." Rica continued.

"I've been re-reading parts…that's all…" Luca said still uninterested in what Rica had to say.

"Are you going to get up today?"

Luca made a few hand gestures that added up to "go away". Rica took the hint and walked off and slammed the door.

"Wonder what got her all uptight…" Luca said looking up from the book briefly before going back to it again.

----------------------------

"Bloody woman…" Rica fumed as she stomped into the living room and sat down next to Kakashi on the couch. She picked up the newspaper he had previously read and opened it up, her actions obviously showing that she was angry.

Kakashi cocked an eyebrow at the girl's actions. He could see that she was upset about something.

"Something happen?" He said glancing over her shoulder to see that she was reading the local news.

"Oh nothing, nothing. Luca has been sucked into that book you hold in such high esteem." Rica said sarcastically with a smile.

"I guess she likes the story too."

"A little too much if you ask me." Rica said gritting her teeth.

"Why are you so upset over your friend reading a book?" Kakashi said as he still was looking over her shoulder.

"I…I…don't know. Its just this feeling I get inside that bothers me. My old friend completely forgot about me when she found something new. It just feels like I'm being thrown away for a stupid book, is all." Rica said, her expression softening.

Kakashi looked at her and felt a twinge of sadness for the girl. Its hard losing friends, especially those you really care about. He put a hand on her shoulder and let out a long sigh.

"Don't worry about her. I'll hide the rest of the books when she leaves the room." He said with a smile as he got up and walked into the kitchen.

Five minutes later Rica jumped when she heard Kakashi shout.

"Luca! Ramen is ready, a nice big bowl just for you! Get it while its hot!"

A loud thud and the fumbling for the doorknob could be heard as Luca ran full throttle into the kitchen and squealed with joy.

Kakashi walked back into the living room and gave a thumbs up to Rica as he went into his bedroom and emerged with the rest of his books and hid them under the cushions of the couch and sat down.

"That was easy." He said as he picked up the paper again.

"Did you take all of them?" Rica said with a hopeful look on her face.

"No, no, just left the one that was on the bed. It would be cruel to take them all."

A loud belch was heard as Luca walked from the kitchen to the living room with a satisfied expression on her face.

"Thank you Kakashi-san for the food." Luca said as she sat on the chair facing Rica and Kakashi.

"No problem." He said, smiling.

"So what's going on today." Luca said, breaking the silence.

"Well, considering it is your friend's birthday, I was thinking we could do something nice for her." He said giving Rica a few poked on the arm as her face reddened a little. She still was not used to the fact that someone actually remembered her birthday and was willing to do something nice for her.

"You don't have to if you don't want to. I'm perfectly fine with just having today go by without incident." Rica said feeling slightly embarrassed.

"Oh no, no, no. Well, have to do something even if it is just you and me." Kakashi said looking down at the girl.

"That's really nice of you…"

"Oh stop being so damn humble Rica, can't you see the guy likes you." Luca blurted.

"Oh bull." Rica rebuked.

Kakashi sat there blinking. It was better that he just sit there and not say a damn thing. He didn't like Rica in that way, in fact they were a little outlandish for his taste.

"I'm going to go out and see what I can come up with, I'll come get you two when I am done." Kakashi stood up and walked to the door. He waved goodbye and shut the door behind him.

Girls…I'll never understand them. He thought to himself as he went to go meet his students..

-----------------------------

"Why'd you go and say that, Luca?" Rica snapped the moment the door shut.

"From the way you two have been acting its easy to see that you two like each other."

"I don't like him, he's just been so nice to me that I find it easy to talk to him." Rica said. This was the truth. She did find it easy for herself to talk to him, perhaps it was because he understood her, or so she thought. Little did she know that was the truth.

"I see." Luca said making kissy faces at Rica.

"Knock it off. There's nothing between us, period. We're only friends. Nothing more, nothing less. He's treated us with respect and let us stay in his home." Rica said loudly.

"Okay, remove the stick from your ass, alright." Luca said getting up and heading back into the room and slamming the door.

Rica just sat there in a daze for a few minutes. This was the first time that Luca had ever gotten mad at her.

Maybe this is the feeling every time I yell at her…Rica thought as she put a hand on her heart. Her feelings had been hurt. She sighed and looked down at her knees before letting out a bitter sob. She sat there crying bitterly, not only because Luca had yelled at her, but for all the times she made Luca feel the way she felt right now.

------------------------

Kakashi met up with his students, who were dumbfounded that he was actually a half an hour early. Not an hour late, but a half an hour early. The three just stood there, their mouths open as their sensei just stood there with a stupid grin on his face.

"Looks like I'm early today." He said putting a hand behind his head.

"Like hell you are Kakashi-sensei." Naruto blurted out. "Are we all doomed or something?" He said looking around himself quickly.

"Baka." Sasuke said looking at Naruto. "What's the deal anyway?"

"No big deal, I didn't even realize I was early. Honest." Kakashi said looking at his students. "Though instead of training, I have a mission for you."

"A mission? Seriously?" Naruto shouted waving his arms about.

"Yes, a mission." Kakashi said seriously.

"What kind of mission?" Sakura asked.

"A mission unlike any other you have ever been on before…" He stopped due to Naruto's excited expression and watched him squirm with anticipation.

"What is it, what is it, what is it?" Naruto said.

"You three are to help me make Rica's birthday a nice one. Nothing too big, just something simple."

Kakashi smirked as Naruto fell to the ground.

"That has to be the most anti-climatic thing I've ever heard!" Naruto yelled.

"He has a point." Sasuke said.

"He does have a point, but I'll do it anyway." Sakura said with a smile.

The two boys nodded in agreement as Kakashi clapped his hands together.

"Great, great. Now do any of you have any ideas?"

"Kakashi-sensei." Sakura groaned. "You have no ideas at all?"

"Nope."

Sakura put her hand to her forehead and sighed.

"I guess I can think of something." She said.

"Good, good. I leave it to you three." He said and disappeared into thin air.

"Damn him." Naruto said shaking a fist. "What in the hell do we do now?"

"Do our mission as assigned." Sasuke said as he started to walk off. "Lets go to the village and see if we could find anything there."

"Good idea Sasuke-kun" Sakura said following him

(Sasuke-kun always comes up with the best ideas) Inner Sakura shouted.

------------------------------

Kakashi walked around the village looking at the various displays in store windows as he walked.

"Hmm…too girly…too…mature…" He said as he peeked into a lingerie shop. "Too childish…not suitable for children under 21...what to buy a girl on her birthday…" He said to himself as he passed various shops looking a little despondent each time he passed one. This was going to be hard, but he was going to come home with something no matter what. He wanted to do something nice for the girl.

Kakashi's frown flipped over as he stopped at a shop.

"Perfect." He said as he walked into the store and pointed at the object he wished to purchase. Kakashi emerged from the shop minutes later with a small parcel in a brown bag, with a grin on his face. He did his part, now he hoped that his students would do the rest.

----------------------------

"We should take her to some place nice to eat!" Naruto said as the three were walking to the village.

"Good, good, also gifts, we need to each get her something nice." Sakura said smiling.

"I know what to get her." Sasuke said quietly.

"Good, we have Sasuke-kun set for a gift, what about you Naruto?"

Naruto stopped dead in his tracks and blinked.

"I got nothing guys." He said a bit sheepishly.

"Typical." Sakura sighed. "Flowers and a card are nice gifts, and you should be able to afford that." She added.

Naruto nodded, feeling better.

"Now where do I get flowers?" He asked.

"Baka. I'll show you." Sakura fumed as she stomped ahead of the two.

A couple minutes later Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto stood outside of the flower shop in which Ino helped out in. Stepping inside Ino greeted them.

"Sakura, Sasuke-kun, Naruto, didn't expect to see you guys in here." Ino said from behind the counter.

"Yeah, need flowers…birthday…any ideas…" Naruto said looking around at the various plants that lined the walls.

"Carnations are nice." Ino said pointing to a small selection of carnations in a corner. "They're cheap too so even you can afford them" she said with a grin.

Naruto grumbled to himself as he stooped down to look at the flowers. They were nice. He picked out a dozen white ones and took them to Ino.

"So who's birthday is it anyway?" She asked as Naruto handed her the money to pay for the flowers.

"A friend." Sasuke said as he walked up to Ino with six yellow carnations.

"How nice." She said happily. "She must be lucky to be able to get flowers from you, Sasuke-kun" Ino's grin grew wider.

"That's enough Ino." Sakura said as she grabbed Sasuke's arm and led him out of the shop, slamming the door behind her.

"Well, we got flowers, now to get the gifts. Lets split up and meet back here in an hour? Is that alright?" Sakura said looking at the two.

Both boys nodded and went their separate ways as Sakura stood there for a few moments trying to think of where to go.

--------------------------------

Kakashi walked into the flower shop ten minutes after Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto left. He looked around a bit before Ino spoke up.

"Anything in particular you looking for?" She asked.

"Nothing in particular, birthday today, need flowers." He said looking at some light pink roses.

He picked down six of them and took them to Ino.

"These will do nicely." He said as he gave her the money to pay for the roses and walked out to the store.

"Got the card, gift, and flowers. Might be over-doing it with the flowers." He shrugged and went back to wandering the streets.

-------------------------------

Sasuke had an idea of what he should get Rica. She had been looking at that display at that one clothing store for a long time, so he went back to see what it really was. Stopping right in front of the store he looked at the display. All it was, was a jacket with a high collar. Sasuke noticed the words "clearance and 50 off" and shrugged.

"Why the hell not." He said as he walked into the store and bought the jacket straight off the display rack.

Coming out of the store, Sasuke had a small smile on his face.

"Mission accomplished."

-------------------------------

Naruto on the other hand was having a hard time thinking of what to get Rica.

"Damnit, I'm never going to find anything." He said as he was holding up a bra. The saleswoman supervising the store walked up to him and grabbed him by the ear, dragging him out of the store.

"Screw you too, witch." Naruto shouted at the woman in the store who shot him an icy glare which went Naruto packin'.

"Gotta find something…damnit." He said again as he walked in and out of stores. Shrugging, he walked into a small grocery store and wandered around. Smiling, he stopped and looked at a gigantic display of ramen.

"Bingo" he said, a devious grin forming.

Naruto walked out with a large bag and some brown wrapping paper humming happily to himself. He went to go back to the flower shop and bumped into Sasuke on the way.

"What did you get her Sasuke?" Naruto said looking at the bag he was holding.

"Something she was looking at the other day." He said simply. "What did you get?" He said looking at the large bag with a weird expression on his face.

"Ramen." He said with a huge grin.

"Typical." Snorted Sasuke as he leaned against the wall of the flower shop waiting for Sakura to return.

-------------------------------------

Sakura hummed happily to herself as she was having a good time looking through the various clothing stores as she was looking around for a gift.

"I should be shopping for Rica, not myself." She said as she put away a nice shirt she held up to herself. "Now what to buy…what to buy…"

Sakura's face lit up as she was rummaging through a clothing rack. She found a nice gift, she just hoped it was to Rica's liking.

Walking out of the shop, Sakura stopped and thought for a second.

"Should get a card too."

Sakura walked to the small grocery store that Naruto bought his ramen and got Rica a card. She hastily wrote something in it and sealed it in its enveloped and put it in the bag with her present to Rica.

"Now to get back to the boys." She said walking back in the direction of the flower shop.

---------------------------------

Fifteen minutes later, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were walking back to their regular meeting place where they waited for Kakashi to come.

"So how about all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ?" Naruto said looking at Sakura.

"That does sound nice, and its all you can eat too." Sakura said.

"Yeah, sounds good." Sasuke said as he stopped walking.

"Its settled then." Sakura said.

"Why are we here? Do we even know is Kakashi-sensei is going to come back here?" Naruto said.

"Maybe we should go to his place." Sakura said.

"Alright, lets go." Sasuke said, without any hesitation.

------------------------------

Kakashi sighed as he opened the door to his home to find that Rica had fallen asleep on the couch. Quietly he put the flowers in the kitchen and his gift in the front closet and walked out of the house.

But before he could go anywhere he saw Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke walking up to meet him.

"Did you guys complete the mission as planned?" He said with a smile.

"Mission accomplished sir." All three said in unison.

"Good, good." Now lets go inside, but be quiet, Rica is asleep on the couch.

All four walked inside the apartment quietly and put their gifts, flowers and whatnot away without having Luca or Rica notice.

Kakashi walked into the living room and gently poked Rica to try to wake her up. Rica pushed his hand away and rolled over to her side. He poked her again, this time harder. Rica rolled over again and opened her eyes.

"What…?" She said groggily.

"Surprise." Kakashi said softly.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura shouted happy birthday, which caused Rica to jump.

"Get dressed, we're going to take you to dinner. Bring your friend too." Sakura said with a smile.

"A-alright." Rica said getting up and walking to the backyard to get her clothes. "Give me a few minutes."

Kakashi walked to the bedroom and knocked on the door.

"Luca, if you're awake get dressed, we're going out to eat." Rustling could be heard behind the door as Luca hurried to get her pants and shoes on.

"Coming, coming." Luca said as she opened the door, almost knocking Kakashi over since he was leaning against it. "S-sorry." She said as she looked at him.

"Alright, ready to go." Rica said as she walked back into the living room. She froze for a second when she saw Luca and quickly turned away. Luca did the same thing.

Kakashi looked at the two and blinked.

Something must have happened when I was gone. He thought as he saw the two girls not even looking at each other.

"Alright. Lets get going." Kakashi said opening the door and walking out. The others followed behind him.

-------------------------------

"Happy birthday Rica.." Naruto said as he put another piece of raw meat on the BBQ. He was glad that they decided to go to the Korean BBQ, all he could eat, and he could eat a lot.

"Thank you." Rica said as she filled her plate with her cooked meat.

Luca ate her meal in silence, which even disturbed Naruto since she wasn't even trying to compete against him.

"Something up Luca?" Naruto said looking at her.

"Nothing." She said as she filled her mouth with food.

"Lets all be happy today, okay, this is a good day." Sakura said smiling.

The six of them ate, drank and had a good time for four hours. Each left the restaurant full and content.

"Time to go back and give Rica our presents." Kakashi said walking slowly down the street.

"Someone is going to need to drag Naruto back, I think he's down for good." Luca said pointing at Naruto lying on the ground. He stuffed himself silly.

"I can make it back…" Naruto said struggling to get up.

"Give me your hand." Luca said taking Naruto's hand and pulling him up.

"Thanks." He said as he groaned.

---------------------------

Rica smiled at all the flowers and gifts placed in front of her.

"I've never received so many flowers in my life, even when I was sick in the hospital." She said with a smile.

"The white ones are from me and the yellow ones are from Sasuke. I don't know who the roses came from though…" Naruto said looking at the roses.

"They're from me." Kakashi said.

"Thank you all so much." Rica said reaching for Sasuke's gift.

Quickly removing the present from its packing Rica's eyes lit up to find that it was the jacket she was looking at from the other day.

"T-thank you so much Sasuke. How did you know I liked this jacket?" She said as she held up the black jacket with the high collar.

"You were looking at it so intently the day I found you, it was the best thing I could come up with."

"Thank you so much." Rica said again as she went for Sakura's.

Rica quickly took the present out of the bag and smiled. She held up a black and silver trim tank top with a zipper down the front.

"Wow, this is awesome. Thank you." Rica said carefully folding up the garment and opening up the card.

Happy birthday to a newfound friend. Hope to celebrate many birthdays with you. From Sakura.

A tear came to Rica's eye as she read the card.

"Thank you." She said softly.

Naruto grinned as Rica reached for his.

Rica quickly got rid of the brown wrapping paper to reveal a medium sized box filled with every flavor of ramen the store had in stock. Rica laughed as she gave Naruto a hug.

"Very thoughtful, thank you so much." She said between laughs.

Setting the ramen down she reached for the last gift on the table, which was Kakashi's.

Rica opened the bag and pulled out a small stuffed black cat. She held it for a few seconds while Kakashi broke the silence.

"I had a hard time finding something, so I thought that would be suitable." He said feeling somewhat embarrassed.

"This is more than suitable. Its very sweet. My mother and father never got me stuffed animals when I was younger." Rica said with a smile. "Thank you so much."

She got up and gave everyone hugs. Luca stood up and poked Rica.

"Can I talk to you for a moment?" she said walking to the kitchen.

Rica's expression changed from happy to serious as she followed her friend to the kitchen. Luca sighed, not looking at Rica as she walked in.

"I'm sorry I got mad at you earlier. I don't know what came over me."

"…That's ok. I guess I realized how it felt to be yelled at for saying something stupid."

"No, no. I had no right to point fingers, or make you embarrassed."

"That's alright, it really is." Rica said putting a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"I'm sorry I didn't get you anything…well…I kinda did already, its just back home. I've been keeping it for some time." Luca said her eyes to the ground.

"Well, I'll see it when we get back, or if we get back that is." Rica said softly.

"Do you think we'll ever get to go back home, Rica?"

"I don't know, the man said we'd return home, he never said how long we'd have to stay here."

"Well, lets make the best of it then." Luca said, brightening up.

The two girls smiled and walked back into the living room.

------------------------------

Everyone talked, played games and had fun for at least 3 hours before Kakashi kicked them out.

"Time to go everyone, you three have training in the morning." Kakashi said as he shooed them out.

The three waved and said their goodbyes and left. Kakashi shut his door and leaned against it and sighed.

"Well, I'm going to go read." Luca said getting up. "I'll probably go to bed tonight too." She said with a smile and left for the bedroom.

"So what do we do now?" Rica said looking at Kakashi.

"I'm getting a drink. You're old enough so lets go."

"Okay." Rica said as she got up to meet Kakashi.

---------------------------------

The two entered the same bar as last time, and took the same table as last time.

"Want anything different?" Kakashi said as he waved his hand for a waitress to come over.

"No, nothing different. I'm fine with sake thank you."

"Okay." He gave the waitress the order and she walked away.

"Hey." She said pointing. "Aren't they the same guys from last time."

"Ary and Shinneri? Yeah, that's them:"

Ary and Shinneri were at the bar talking to the bartender as he was cleaning a few glasses.

"At least one of them isn't on the ground this time." Rica said amused.

Kakashi nodded as the waitress came back with a bottle of sake and two cups.

"More this time?" Rica said cocking her head to the side.

"Yes. More. I've had one hell of a day looking for your gift." He said pouring himself a cup full.

"It was that hard?"

"Definitely. I don't know what to get for a girl, let alone myself."

"Sorry to have caused you trouble then." Rica said apologetically as she took a sip from her cup.

"Well I'm glad you like what I got you at least."

"I really love it. Even if you had no idea what you were getting, it actually means a lot to me." Rica smiled.

Kakashi nodded as he managed to take a sip without removing his mask.

Rica blinked and wondered how in the hell he did that, and without thinking she asked him a question.

"Why do you keep that mask on anyway?" She asked.

Kakashi shrugged and took another mysterious sip.

"Can I see what's under the mask?" She asked.

Kakashi shrugged as he took yet another sip.

"Are you going to answer my question?"

Kakashi shrugged and smiled.

"Rrrr…" Rica said as she poured herself another cup.

Two hours and five cups of sake later Kakashi was carrying Rica home on his back.

"Guess your limit is five, eh?"

"Aye, aye el captain." Rica said saluting the ground.

Kakashi laughed as he opened the door and let himself in. Luca was already asleep by the time they got home.

He opened the door to the bedroom and set Rica beside Luca who was asleep with the first Icha Icha Paradise on her face. Smiling Kakashi removed the book from her face and set it on the bed stand.

"Get some sleep." He said to Rica as she got under the covers.

"Aye, aye." She said tiredly.

He smiled again and left the room and shut the door.

Strange girls…that's for damn sure….

----------------------------

End Chapter

----------------------------

Now that has to be the longest chapter ever. Took long enough to write too. XD

The story is winding down to a close, as I said in the beginning of the chapter. I should finish it by the end of next week. :D

Reviewer Responses -

Nada for this time - so sad, too bad. shuffles off to a corner XD


	9. Beginning of the End

**Disclaimer **- I do not own Naruto in any way shape or form. It's just there for me to mold and play with to my demented likings. :D

**Author's Note** - Its getting near the end. The next few chapters will be much longer than normal to make up for whatever else I might have missed. I have made a decision to make a second story, continuing this, which will be more AU than this. Should make for some interesting situations and weird crack pairings perhaps. It will be fun to write, and hopefully fun to read. This is turning out to become a series of odd stories, I can feel it.

Oh well, enjoy.

--------------------------------

**Chapter Nine** - The Beginning of the End

---------------------------------

"So, this story is coming to a close. Enjoy it so far?" The masked man said as he flipped the book around in his hands. "I know I have. Its been interesting seeing my little sister running around not being herself in the slightest." He paused for a moment and then continued.

"I bet its weird finding out that she's my little sister, eh? Who else would have known her name, and sent her that message online. I'm not some creepy cyber stalker. Just your not-so-average older brother that likes to screw with his sibling's lives tremendously. There's no reason to explain, or even enough time to explain how or why I would send her to this world. I'm just here to add something to the story, nothing more." He grinned and opened the book again.

The man looked up before disappearing.

"The name's Damon if you were wondering."

He smiled, disappeared and a frontal view of Kakashi's apartment could be seen as the smoke settled.

-------------------------------

Kakashi had left for the day. He had his plate full with training his students, and various activities that he didn't bother mentioning to anyone.

It was well after noon before Rica woke up, feeling groggy and headachy.

"Damn, what happened last night?" Rica said rubbing her forehead.

"I dunno." Luca said looking up from her book.

Rica jumped at the sound of Luca's voice.

"Shit, where'd you come from?" She said looking around the room.

"I haven't left this spot since last night, jesus, what'd you have to drink?" Luca said putting the book down for a minute.

"Half a bottle of sake at least." Rica said grumbling.

"Ohh…" Luca picked up her book and started to read again.

Rica groaned as she got out of bed. Her legs were still wobbly from drinking too much sake. She didn't care for showering, or even combing her hair, all she could think of was food. Rica made her way to the kitchen and opened the cupboards and took out a box of cereal.

"The man has been stingy." Rica mumbled as she poured herself a bowl.

Opening the fridge she was that there was no milk. It didn't matter, cereal was cereal regardless of milk. Rica just stuck her hand in the bowl and ate it as it was. She emptied the bowl in a matter of minutes and threw it in the sink to clean later.

"Might as well clean myself." She said as she hobbled to the bathroom to shower.

-----------------

Luca sighed happily as she finally finished the first volume of Icha Icha Paradise and set it on the bedstand. Hopping out of bed, she walked over to the bookcase to get the second one.

"Wha…where's the second one…and the others….hell, where are all the bleedin' books?" Luca said as she fumbled around the shelf looking for the lost volumes.

"I could have sworn I saw them a few days ago…dammit…where are they?"

Then it hit her like a lightning bolt to the brain.

Luca fell to her knees dramatically and started to yell.

"Goddamn you Kakashi you handsome devil you, I you will regret this!" Luca rolled around the floor teary-eyed and obviously on Icha Icha Paradise deprivation.

-----------------------

Kakashi stopped dead in his tracks as he was walking down the street trying to find something to occupy his free time.

"I just got a weird feeling, just now…odd." He said as he felt a cold shiver down his spine.

Shrugging it off, he went back to what he was doing - nothing.

-------------------------

After taking a shower, Rica felt a hundred times better. She was humming to herself happily as she cleaned the dishes in the sink and put them away. The effects of her hangover were pretty much gone.

"Not used tobeing stuck inside all day." She said to herself as she walked to the bedroom.

She opened the door to find a sullen Luca huddled in a corner.

"What the hell are you doing?" Rica said arching an eyebrow.

"He took the books…all the pretty books…away…they're gone….he's trying to mess with my poor moldable mind…that FIEND." Luca said.

"Eh?"

"KAKASHI took the bloody books. I wanted so desperately to read what happens in the second book." Luca threw up her hands and wailed.

"Oh chill out, get dressed. You'll feel better once you're out." Rica said throwing Luca her clothes.

Luca reluctantly took the clothes and went into the bathroom to change. Minutes later she appeared behind Rica.

"Lets go." She said slightly depressed.

Its just a fucking book…for crying out loud. Rica thought as she locked the door behind her.

-----------------------------

Kakashi wandered the village for a while. It occurred to him that he hadn't been assigned to any missions in the past few weeks.

"Hm…I wonder what the holdup is." He said to himself as stopped in the middle of the street. Turning around he went to go find Iruka to see if he knew anything.

Kakashi found Iruka sitting down watching the academy students taking their break outside.

"Hey." Kakashi said as he sat down next to Iruka.

"Haven't seen you in a while, what have you been up to?" Iruka said, his attention on two students rough housing.

"This and that. Nothing too interesting." He said lazily. "Any idea why I haven't been called for any missions lately?"

"No, no idea. The Hokage may know. Try talking to him."

"Hm. Thanks Iruka." Kakashi got up and started to walk off. "Talk to you more later."

Iruka waved and got up to separate the two children who were fighting.

----------------------

After sitting around for about an hour, Kakashi finally had a chance to talk to the Hokage.

"What brings you here, Kakashi?" The third Hokage said politely.

"Do you have any idea why I haven't been called for missions lately." He said sitting down.

"Ah, in fact I do. You see, it has come to my attention that you have been playing host to two young ladies and I thought it'd be best that you were around to see that they don't get themselves into trouble."

"Is that it?" Kakashi said arching an eyebrow.

Those damn girls somehow did it again… He frowned slightly.

"Yes, that is it. And from the looks of it, you've done well."

"How do you know that?" Kakashi said leaning toward the Hokage.

"I have my ways. Is that all you came here to talk to me about?"

"Yes sir."

"Then don't let me keep you. Go and have a good day." The Hokage smiled and waved Kakashi out.

"Hm…makes sense in a way…" Kakashi said as he went back out on the street. "Guess I should make the best out of my free time, seeing that as long as the girls are here, I won't be doing any missions." He said with a frown.

"I guess I could take Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura on a little trip to reward them for their excellent behavior as of late…" He said thinking to the times in which the team actually cooperated instead of Naruto and Sasuke fighting or competing against one another.

"Guess I could throw the other two along, seeing that I am a host." He said almost sarcastically.

Kakashi stopped walking and stared at an advertisement.

"Perfect." He said with a happy tune.

-------------------

"So where are we going?" Luca whined as she followed Rica a good ways behind.

"To a place Sasuke took me." Rica said as she quickened her pace.

"Could you at least slow down so I can catch up?" Luca said dispiritedly.

"Luca, lighten up. There's no reason to be so blue. Normally you're the one telling me these things." Rica said turning around to face her friend. "So slap on a smile and have a good day."

"Alright, alright." Luca said putting on a smile. It was a half hearted one since she really wanted to read the second book that badly.

Rica finally lead Luca to the place Sasuke showed her a few days ago. Everything was just they way it had been when she arrived. The stream was crystal clear, the grass green, trees lush with leaves and the sun was perfect.

Rica laid down in a patch of sunlight and sighed.

"Isn't it nice here?" She said basking.

"Its nice…" Luca said taking off her shoes and socks to stick her feet into the stream. "Water is a bit cold…though…"

"Aw, Luca c'mon stop being so down…I'll try to find where Kakashi hid the books, if you'd please feel better, for me." Rica said rolling over on her stomach, looking at Rica genuinely concerned.

"Alright. I just feel like he hates me, y'know. Everyone is so nice to you, yet when it comes to me they just brush me off as if I am nothing."

"Well, that's not true at all." Rica said still looking at her friend. She could not help and take what Luca was saying into account. It was true that she had been treated nicer than Luca has.

"Really?" Luca said with a hopeful smile.

"Yes, really." Rica said instantly. Inside she was kicking herself for lying to her friend. But if it'd make her feel better, then it was worth it. Even for a little while.

"You're right, this is a really nice place." Luca said eyeing some fish swimming around near some reeds.

"It is…really relaxing." Rica said with a yawn as she rolled back onto her back and shut her eyes. There was something about this place that was really relaxing. You could let your guard down and nothing would happen to you.

Luca sat at the stream bed for a little while thinking. She had a feeling that Rica was only saying those things just to make her feel better. She wasn't as dumb as she appeared to be, not in the slightest. She sighed and took her feet out of the water and looked around. The sun was moving towards the west and there were many patches of sunlight, but scattered due to the leaves.

Sighing, she took a place next to Rica in the sun and laid down. Within minutes she was asleep.

------------------------

Kakashi met up with his students a few hours later to tell them of his little plan.

"Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto since you guys have been working hard I decided to take you all on a little trip."

"Really, where?" Sakura said not giving Kakashi a chance to finish.

"I was just getting to that." He said calmly. "I plan to take you three on a camping trip. No training like the last trips I took you three on, this is purely for relaxation. I plan to take advantage of the downtime I have now, and I want you three to take advantage of it too."

"Nice!" Naruto said with a wide grin.

"Ohh, I can't wait. When are we leaving?" Sakura said happily.

"Tomorrow."

The three exchanged hopeful expressions and smiled.

"Though I'm bringing the girls along, is that isn't much trouble. Supposedly it is my responsibility now to make sure nothing happens to them."

"Its no problem." Sasuke said calmly. The other two nodded in agreement.

"Okay, well get backing. We're leaving tomorrow morning." Kakashi said and disappeared.

"I hate when he does that." Naruto said slightly annoyed, but that annoyance quickly changed to that of anticipation. "Lets go pack." He said as he left the scene.

Sakura and Sasuke nodded to each other and left to their homes to get ready.

--------------------

Kakashi opened the door to his apartment and went inside.

"Girls, are you here?" He shouted, waiting for a reply. Seeing that no one was home, he searched the house to make sure.

"They're not here, and no note either…" He half expected them to at least let him know where they were going. He mentally slapped himself for thinking that way.

You sound like a parent…snap out of it. He cursed under his breath as he walked around the house one more time to find that they were not home.

"They'll be home soon." He said to himself as he pulled out a copy of Icha Icha Paradise and sat down on the couch.

---------------------

Three hours had passed and the girls were still no where to be seen. Kakashi looked out his window and saw that the sun was setting.

"That's it, I'm going out there." He didn't want them getting into the bad parts of the village after dark. Especially for two young girls like themselves.

He left the apartment and went out searching for them.

--------------------

Luca rolled over and opened her eyes. The sun they were laying in was no longer there and a light chill was in the air. The sun was almost completely hidden over the horizon and the forest they were in was looking gloomier and gloomier by the minute.

"Rica, get up. Its getting dark out." Luca said poking her friend.

"Er…just five more minutes…" Rica said muttering in her sleep.

Luca blinked and pushed her friend over on her stomach.

Rica opened her eyes and sat up.

"What was that for?" Rica said looking around. It was a shock to see that it was already dark out. "Wow, got dark fast." She said scanning the area.

"Yeah, it has. We should head back now."

"Nah, I'm good. You can head back, I'll hang out here for a little while longer."

"Are you sure Rica?" Luca said looking around.

"Pretty sure. Go back to the apartment, Kakashi might be worried. Though I don't see why he should." Rica said picking up a few leaves as she talked.

"Alright…" Luca said as she got up and dusted herself off.

"I'll be fine. Don't worry about me." Rica said in a reassuring tone.

Luca nodded and waved to her friend before she walked off into the direction of the village. By this time the sun had completely set and the first stars were shining brightly.

Rica laid back and watched the stars glowing brighter and brighter as it got darker out. Soon there were millions of stars twinkling in the sky, even the moon in its crescent stage was shining brilliantly, casting a bluish glow upon the ground.

This was the time Rica loved the most. She smiled contently as the sounds of the night got louder and louder.

-----------------

Kakashi wasn't panicking but he was starting to get worried as he saw no sign of Rica or Luca anywhere in the village. He made sure to check everywhere that was still open and the streets as well.

He stopped at the edge of a building and scanned the area again. Still there was no sign of the girls anywhere. Looking ahead of him he saw the great expanse of forest and sighed.

"I hope they're not in there." He said aloud as he kept looking in that direction.

Shrugging his shoulders he went in the direction of the forest. If they were not there, they could most likely be back at home.

------------------

It didn't take long for Luca to make it back to Kakashi's home. She took the spare key she took from Rica out of her pocket and opened the door. It was obvious that no one was home as Luca turned on the light.

She stopped dead in her tracks as she saw a familiar book sitting on the coffee table.

"The second book." She said to herself as she picked it up and sat on the couch. Nothing could make her look up from that book, not even God.

------------------

Kakashi traveled from tree to tree at a relatively fast pace. He had covered a good portion of the surrounding forest before he came upon a small clearing near a stream. And with that clearing came a small dark figure staring up at the stars.

"Found one." He said as he advanced upon the figure to find that it was Rica.

As he got closer he heard her singing softly. He couldn't make out all the words, but from what he heard, it was a sad song.

So Naruto was right…she does have a nice voice. He said as he walked up behind her and touched her shoulder.

Rica jumped straight up and shot a fist right in Kakashi's direction. He quickly countered her fist as he spun her around and caught her in a bear hug with her arms folded over her chest.

"I wouldn't do that to someone you know." He said calmly.

"You scared the hell out of me!" Rica shouted out of breath.

"I'm sorry." He said as he let her go. "I've been looking for you and Luca for some time now."

"You didn't have to look for me, or for her. In fact she should be back at your home right now." Rica said annoyed. "If my father ever gave a damn about me, he'd be like you."

Kakashi frowned at the statement. Maybe she was right. He had been acting very much like a parent, even when he didn't mean to, much less want to be.

"I'm only six years older than you, so I don't see where you get the fatherly bit from." He said feeling slightly annoyed.

"Then don't come looking for me." She said still annoyed.

"I wouldn't have come looking for you, or Luca if I didn't care." He said simply.

This made Rica shut up for a minute. Her facial features softened at his words as she let out a long sigh.

"So youcare about us?"

"Yes, both of you."

"I don't know what to say…" Rica said feeling rather dumbfounded.

"You don't have to say anything." He smiled at her seeing that she was no longer angry.

Rica stared at him for a second. He looked much like a ghost in the moonlight. His hair and his light skin color gave a silvery look to him as he stood there. Rica smirked at the sight.

"You look like a ghost." She said smiling.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. Lets go." Rica said as she walked past him in the direction of his home.

Kakashi smiled as Rica walked past him.

"I have a better idea." He said picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder and jumped onto a tree.

"This way is much faster than walking." He said as he jumped from tree to tree. In less than five minutes they were in front of his apartment.

"Looks like Luca made it home safely" Rica said as she opened the door.

Luca was sitting on the couch, all volumes of Icha Icha Paradise in front of her.

"Think you can hide 'em from me, you got another thing coming." Luca said happily as she looked up from her book.

Kakashi sighed as Rica groaned.

"Well, I'm off to shower." Kakashi said simply as he left the two girls alone in the living room.

Rica sat down next to Luca as she started reading again. She eyed the other books that lay on the table before her and picked one up. She flipped through one carelessly and set it down. She didn't see what was so interesting about the books, only Luca and Kakashi knew.

Luca yawned as she set the book down on her lap. She laid back and shut her eyes, quickly going to sleep. Rica turned to her friend and gave her a few sharp pokes, getting no response. Rica got up and brought a spare blanket from the bedroom and covered her friend with it.

Yawning, Rica headed off to the bedroom and got ready for bed.

Kakashi got out of the shower shortly after Rica went into the bedroom. He went into the living room to discover that Luca was sprawled out on his couch. Looking resigned and extremely tired he walked over to the bedroom and knocked on the door.

Being given the ok to enter he walked in and stood at the end of the bed yawning.

"Luca took your couch, and you're wondering if you could sleep here, yes?" Rica said without having to look up at a book she was reading. (Something not Icha Icha Paradise, imagine that)

"Yes…" He said sheepishly. He was too tired to give a damn. He just didn't want to sleep on the floor.

Rica got up and got another blanket from the closet and threw it at him.

"Alright, I don't mind. Its no big deal to me. Just keep to you end and I will keep to mine." She said as she got back into bed and opened up the book again.

Yawning again, Kakashi took the blanket and got into bed as well. He was happy that he finally got to sleep in his own bed for the first time in at least a week.

Rica kept reading silently for at least 30 minutes after he got in. Kakashi covered his head to keep the light from bothering him, but it didn't work Pulling his head from under the covers he rolled on top of Rica, pulled the book out of her hands, and set it on the bed stand.

Rica blinked confusedly for a few seconds as he looked at her. He smiled and shut off the light and went back to his own end of the bed.

"Goodnight." He said cheerfully as he pulled the covers over his shoulder.

"G-goodnight." She said quickly as she too pulled her covers close.

Rica rolled over to her side and laid there frozen for a while. Her heart couldn't stop racing.

_What in the fucking hell is wrong with me. _She thought fiercely to herself.

She couldn't get his smiling image out of her head, no matter how many times she mentally beat herself up. She didn't think anything of him, but she felt weird nonetheless. She grit her teeth as she laid there for a little while longer. Kakashi was already asleep by the time Rica let out a small yawn. Within ten minutes Rica fell asleep soundly.

-------------------

Luca woke up early to find that she fell asleep on the couch. She pulled the blanket off and set it on the couch as she headed to the bedroom to check on Rica. Opening the door, Luca gasped as she found Rica and Kakashi in bed, together. Not to mention the position both were in.

Kakashi was hugging Rica as if she was some sort of stuffed animal. Luca's shocked expression suddenly turned to that of amusement.

"Now what in the world do we have here?" She shouted in a jocular tone.

Rica opened her eyes at the shouting, suddenly realizing that she was being held and screamed.

"What in the bloody hell do you think you're doing man?" Rica shouted causing Kakashi to wake up.

"Huh…what…what's going on?" He said groggily.

"Look!" She said using her free hand to point at the arm that was holding her tightly. "I thought I told you to keep to your side of the bed?"

Kakashi released his arm and blinked.

"Well how am I to know what I am doing when I am asleep?"

Rica inwardly agreed with him, but outwardly gave a stern look. Kakashi mumbled an apology and got up to get dressed.

Rica sat there dumbfounded as Luca got out of the way so he could get through the door.

"W-what the hell was that?" Luca said turning her head at Rica and to where Kakashi was several times fast.

"I-I don't know." Rica stammered, still dumbfounded.

"You two were in bed together…" She said, a wide grin spreading across her face.

"It wasn't like that at all. You fell asleep on the couch, he didn't want to sleep on the floor again so I let him have half the bed…" Rica stopped and thought for a while.

"Though he did look at me last night, it was different than the other times…perhaps it was my mind fucking with me, I was pretty tired last night." Rica said nodding.

"You never know." Luca said, grinning.

"Well, I can tell you that its nothing like that, and he'd agree. Like I told you, my feelings are still the same - I have none." Rica nodded again, this time smiling. It was true, she had none, but he still confused her regardless.

Luca nodded, deciding not to broach the subject anymore. Just as the girls stopped talking, Kakashi entered the room, dressed and completely awake.

"What are you two still doing not ready…" He paused for a second. "Oh yeah…I haven't told you two yet. We're going on a little trip. You two, Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto and myself. I need a little relaxation and I know exactly where to go." He said as he saw the expressions of the girls change.

"Where are we going?" Luca asked happily.

"You'll find out when you get there." Kakashi smiled.

"Aww, but can't you tell us now? Please?" Luca pleaded.

"Nope, not till we get there. You two need to get some supplies for the trip. I can supply extra towels, blankets, clothing, and sleeping bags. But I need you two to get some other things. So we're going to make a quick trip to the store before we leave." Kakashi said walking to the closet to get the stuff down from the upper self.

"Okay." Both girls said at once and went to go get dressed. It didn't take long for them to get dressed and ready to go. When they returned to the bedroom small piles of towels, blankets, clothes and sleeping bags were already set up.

"Aright. We need to get backpacks for you two then we can go. Leave the stuff there, we'll worry about it when we get back." Kakashi said leaving the room. The girls followed him out of the apartment and down the street to a small supply store on the corner.

A little bell jingled as the three entered the store. Various supplies hung from the walls for camping, hiking, and various outdoor activities. Even some ninja gear in various displays.

"Oooooh…pretty…" Luca said as she went to go and pick up a kunai knife. Kakashi took it from her hand and set it down.

"That's not what we are here for today. I have enough at my place so you can see one later." He said going back to looking for suitable equipment.

Kakashi arched an eyebrow at a small display in the corner of the store. "Everything on sale, today only!" It read in large red letters. Curious, he walked over to the display and shuffled through its contents.

As Kakashi was looking around the bargain bin, Rica was looking through a newspaper and was staring at a page for some time.

Luca walked over to her friend and peeked over her shoulder to see what she was looking at. She too stopped and looked at the page.

"What…what is this?" Rica said turning her head to her friend.

"That looks like…us." Luca said pointing to two girls in a comic strip.

"But we're here, and what we're looking at is our lives back home…that can't be possible." Rica said, looking even more confused.

"I know…but it…looks so goddamn COOL." Luca blurted out as she took the paper from Rica's hands.

"It makes sense in a weird way you know." Rica said pulled down the paper from Luca's face. "This place is a comic, and our lives are a comic to them. So we entertain them, as they entertain us. Though what I don't understand is why haven't any people recognized us yet if we are a comic here." Rica said looking at the comic closely.

"We do look different here." Luca said pointing to a mirror.

She was right. Their appearances in the comic strip varied from what they look like in Konoha. Luca's hair was shorter in the comic, while in Konoha her hair reached her middle back. Also her clothing, Luca rarely wore her track uniform. But in the comic it seems that she always wore it. Rica had extremely long hair in the comic, while in Konoha her hair reached her shoulder blades.

"I guess the differences were made to hide who we were." Rica said aloud.

"Maybe. Doubt it though." Luca said still looking at the comic.

"I wonder if anyone knows about this." Rica said looking around.

"Who knows. It doesn't really look like it matters anyway, look." Luca pointed to a small blurb on the last panel.

"Rica and Luca's days are numbered. Will they find their way back home, or be stuck where they are forever?"

"I don't know what that means, but it seems like we don't have a lot of time left here. Maybe that guy will come back for us and bring us back to our old lives…" Luca said frowning.

"Believe it or not, I actually do miss my home. This place is too surreal for me, and if we stay, we can easily complicate things and that would really suck…"

"Complicate what things? This bloody comic has been planned and written already, I don't see what we can do to alter anything."

"One can never be too careful." Rica said in a low voice.

Kakashi had found two bags for the girls, large enough to fit what they needed, and cheap enough so that he didn't spend more than he wanted to. In fact he had a lot left over. He paid for his purchases at the front and saw the girls huddled in a corner of the store with a newspaper and walked over to them.

"Done. Ready to go?" He said from a short distance.

"Yeah, yeah. Ready." Rica said hurriedly as she folded up the newspaper and stuck it in her pocket.

The three left the store quickly and went back to the apartment to pack.

As Rica was packing her bag, she couldn't stop thinking about that comic strip.

Why would anyone write a comic strip about our lives…or are our lives just a figment of some artists imagination…just like the world we are in. But what if this world is real and our world is fake? So many questions…not enough time to find the answers to them all…what about that last part of the comic…will we be trapped here forever…I hope not. We don't belong here…I want to go home, but I don't want to leave right now.

Rica sighed heavily as she packed the last of her stuff into her already bulging bag and walked out into the living room. She had at least 3 days of fun and adventure in front of her. Or at least she hoped.

-------------------------

End of Chapter Nine

--------------------------

Sorry for the delay. Took me a while to find the time to write more. I should be finishing the story within one to two weeks, depending on how much time I get to write.

**Reviewer Responses** -

**Krows Scared** - Thank you very much, a sequel is already in the works and should be up sometime in September or October.

**Roi du Ballet** - Hehehe, thank you. I was thinking of putting that in. Almost did in pervious chapters. Its something I want to put in in a future story, perhaps a third part to this one, if things work out well enough.

**Taskei** - I tried to make this different than other fics I've read. I'm glad someone noticed that. I really have no intention of having any romantic encounters with any of the characters. Maybe hinting at it, or light romance but nothing heavy. Just something to complicate things or move the story along if need be. For character POV's I've been experimenting with different things as I progress. I noticed that I used the same POV in almost every chapter. But that is okay too, depending. Thank you for reading, I really appreciate it.

**Millenia7** - Heheh, thank you again. I really appreciate it. I will keep writing. bows


	10. An Enlightening Experience pt 1

**Disclaimer **- I do not own Naruto. Though I do own the characters I make up to fill up space.

**Author's Note** - Hoping to finish this before I start my new job on Monday. I'll probably only be able to do this chapter though, but just as long as it is before Monday I'll be happy. After this story is complete, I should be able to work on the second story immediately. I hope to make the second one longer than this, both chapter length and chapter number. Perhaps 10-15 even 20 chapters depending.

Any who, thank you to all that take the time to read. I appreciate it greatly.

Clarification -

---------------- Scene changes mostly.

Thoughts

Whatever else

(inner Sakura)

-------------------

**Chapter Ten** - An Enlightening Experience Part One

-------------------

Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Luca and Rica trekked for three hours before reaching their destination. Rica and Luca dropped their bags and sat down on the ground panting heavily. They haven't traveled so long and so far in a really long time. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were fine, maybe a bit worn out, but fine. Kakashi was still walking, not noticing that the rest of the group stopped for a break.

Turning around after a couple hundred feet he realized that no one was behind him.

"Eh?" He said to himself before he shouted back. "What's the problem back there?"

"The problem is that we've been walking non-stop since we left, my feet are burning with pain." Luca said rubbing her right foot.

"Suck it up, we're getting close to our destination." Kakashi said jokingly. But inwardly he was kind of annoyed.

Luca made a face at Kakashi and put her shoe back on. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura already started walking as Rica picked up her things and started to walk as well.

"Wait up you guys!" Luca shouted as she pushed her shoe on and grabbed her bag to follow them.

----------------------------

Another hour had passed before they reached their destination. A good sized clearing overlooking a great expanse of forest as far as the eye can see. Trees surrounded all three sides, and a cliff took the other side. They were on the side of a mountain, which held a secret hot spring only a few people knew about, at least that Kakashi knew of. It was a serene place, good enough for a camping trip. Enough to keep them busy for at least three days.

"We're here." Kakashi said as he dropped his bag in front of him.

Rica and Luca dropped to the ground panting even louder than before.

"…I'm not cut out for this." Rica said sitting up and putting her bag in front of her.

"Same." Luca said still laying down.

Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura were already setting up camp.

Rica and Luca sat there looking on as everyone else set up camp easily. After everyone was done, they managed to get up and pitch their own tent. There were four tents. One belonging to Naruto and Sasuke, one belonging to Sakura, one belonging to Kakashi and one belonging to Rica and Luca.

After several minutes of fumbling around with the tent, the girls managed to erect it without too many problems.

"That wasn't…too hard." Rica said standing back and looking at the tent.

"Really now?" Luca said out of breath looking at the tent.

Kakashi appeared behind them and put a hand on each of their shoulders.

"Good job. Now go unpack, rest and do whatever." He said disappearing into his own tent.

"Sounds like a good idea." Rica said picking up her bag and going inside the tent.

Inside the tent, Rica quickly took out her items and set them up on her side of the tent. She unrolled her sleeping bag and took out her flat pillow and set her nightclothes, towel, and other necessities onto of the pillow. She even brought the little stuffed cat Kakashi got her for her birthday along. It was too cute to keep back in Konoha.

Sighing, she emerged from the tent to see that Luca and Naruto were wrestling on the ground again. Shaking her head she went into the forest to explore for a while.

----------------------

Luca was pushed on the ground as Naruto sat on her stomach. She grit her teeth and used all her strength to launch Naruto off her stomach.

Naruto was immediately launched off her stomach and crashed into a tree with a sickening thud.

"Ouch…goddamn…" Naruto said rubbing the back of his head.

"Looks like I won." Luca said as she stood up.

"I'm not going to argue, it hurt like a bitch." He said getting up as well. "Lets call it quits for today."

"Wow, backing down so soon, that's not like you at all." Luca said dusting off the back of her pants.

Naruto nodded and disappeared into his tent to do god knows what.

------------------

Sasuke had quickly left the camp site to go off and be alone. It didn't sit well with him that he had to spend time with everyone for about three days. So he took a fishing rod, a couple lures and some bait with him to do some fishing near a small stream a mile back.

He didn't care that he was alone, in fact he found it better that he was. He was more of a lone wolf than anything else. The company of others was good sometimes, but right now he didn't need it.

Hooking the bait to the hook he cast out his line and waited for a fish to get hooked on the bait. It didn't take long for a fish to become hooked, and with little to no effort he pulled the fish to shore. It was a small fish, but a good side for eating. He hadn't brought any food with him, so hunting, or fishing was the only way he was to feed himself. He was too proud to ask anyone else for food.

A small smile crept along his face as he hooked another fish shortly after casting out the line.

This time it was a large fish, twice the size of the one he had caught previously. Proud of his catches, he packed up his rod and took the fish deeper into the forest to cook them.

--------------------

Naruto had crept into his tent to unpack and fall asleep. He lay there snoozing peacefully as Sakura lumbered around outside gathering firewood, seeing that no one else was planning on doing it.

"Damn boys." She said as she threw some wood into a pile. "Never thinking ahead."

She picked out a piece of wood suitable for digging and dug a shallow fire pit and placed the wood around and in it. Satisfied with herself she too went into her own tent to rest for a while.

-----------------

Seeing that everyone was in their tents, Luca looked around at the desolate scene. It was nice, but without people around it inspired feelings of loneliness. Feeling slightly depressed for one of the first time since she was here, Luca went into her tent as well, seeing that everyone was doing their own thing and took a nap. She had been exhausted since arriving.

-----------------

Rica busied herself by attempting to climb a tree. The tree of choice had a thick trunk ridden with deep gashes and low sturdy branches that were suited to fit her weight. Falling to the ground for the seventh time Rica groaned as she rubbed her lower back. She wasn't cut out for climbing trees, especially since she lacked the upper body strength, but enough lower body strength to support herself.

Determined, Rica stood up and took a few steps back, readied herself and tried again. She ran towards the lowest branch, jumped, grabbed a hold of it and swung her body so that she hooked her legs on the branch. Rica smiled as she swung upside down from the tree, now all she had to do was get into an upright position without breaking her neck.

-------------------

Sasuke threw dirt over his small fire as he was ready to head back to camp. After eating a decent meal he felt a lot better. It was good to take a break and not worry about things. Though even still, that was no reason to let his guard down. Sasuke made it back to camp and threw his fishing equipment into his tent and onto Naruto.

Naruto groaned after having the equipment thrown on him. Throwing it off he exited the tent rubbing his forehead.

"What's the big idea Sasuke, I was sleeping." Naruto said still rubbing his head.

"Didn't see you." Sasuke said simply as he went to the fire pit and moved the wood around. Whoever had put the pit together did a poor job of piling the wood.

"Yeah right!" Naruto shouted, annoyed at Sasuke's calm demeanor.

"I don't expect you to believe me. But I didn't see you." He said without looking at Naruto, which made him angrier.

Naruto shot Sasuke a glare and went back into the tent. Swearing and the moving around of Sasuke's items could be heard. Sasuke shrugged as he finished fixing the fire pit and went into the tent as well, seeing that he hadn't set his stuff out yet.

------------------

Rica finally managed to get into an upright position. By this time she was already on a higher branch over looking a good portion of the surrounding area. She could see the natural hot spring, it wasn't very far from where she was sitting.

"I'm going to go there later." She said to herself as she balanced on the branch. She wasn't too far up, but far enough so that she could see over the tops of smaller trees. Few large trees grew in the area she was in, so the view was good.

------------------

Kakashi yawned and took his copy of Icha Icha Paradise off his face as he got up. He didn't expect to fall asleep as he laid in his tent reading, but it happened nonetheless. Groaning a little he got up and left the tent. Sakura and Sasuke were out and about as he stood up.

"Where are the other three?" He asked yawning.

Sasuke shrugged.

"Luca is sleeping, so is Naruto, I haven't seen Rica since we arrived. She said something about exploring." Sakura said as she was watching Sasuke.

"Thank you Sakura." Kakashi nodded as he walked towards the hot spring. "I'm going to check if the hot spring is deserted or not."

Sakura and Sasuke nodded and went back to their own business.

--------------------

Humming to himself Kakashi walked briskly towards the hot spring. He was hoping that no one else had the same idea as him, camping out around the area. He couldn't sense anyone nearby, but it was always good to do a visual check to verify things.

--------------------

Having enough of the scenery, Rica made several attempts at getting down. She managed to slide down the trunk of the tree until she got to the lowest branch. It was wide enough so that she could walk across it without worrying about falling. Being cocky and over confident, Rica walked back and forth on the branch, even spinning a few times until she lost her footing and fell.

"Shhiiiit." She yelled as she fell from the tree and landed on her feet, twisting her ankle.

Rica grimaced as the pain shot up her leg, her ankle quickly swelling up. She removed her shoe to reduce the pressure.

"Son of a bitch, stupid, stupid, stupid." She mumbled to herself as she balanced herself on the trunk of the tree.

"Maybe I can walk back."

"I wouldn't try that if I were you." Said a voice from high above a tree.

"Well you're not me." Rica retorted as she took a few steps and yelled in pain.

"See, I told you." Said the voice again.

"Well screw you and what you think. I'll do just fine thank you very much.

"Whatever you say. I'll help you." Said the voice coming closer.

"No, you won't." Rica said flatly as she got up and started to move again. Each step the pain coursed through her leg, making it even worse.

Kakashi jumped down from the tree and stopped her. Rica shot him an angry glare.

"I thought I said I didn't need help."

"Bull, look at your ankle. If you keep walking on it, its going to swell to the size of a watermelon." He said pointing to her ankle, which was already pretty bad.

"I'm fine. F.I.N.E." Rica said through gritted teeth.

"Well, of course you are. Now you're going to need help getting home." He said as if he ignored her.

Rica's face turned red with anger. She didn't need his help, or anyone else's she was perfectly fine on her own.

"You know, if someone else had seen you like this, you'd be in a world of trouble. Its not good going off by yourself in a place you don't know unless you're capable of taking care of yourself if the need ever arose." Kakashi said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I know, and I am capable." Rica said still glaring at him.

"Not with a foot like that you're not. You're coming with me." He said as he flung her over his shoulder again. Rica was enraged as she tried as hard as she could to get herself down.

Kakashi was having a hard time holding onto her.

"Stop moving." He said getting a little annoyed at her behavior.

"No." She said defiantly.

Shrugging. Kakashi set her down as she wished and walked off.

"If you are so capable, get back to camp yourself." He said as he walked off. He had enough.

Rica stood there dumbfounded for a few minutes.

"Odd."

Rica stood up again, the same pain shooting up her leg as she hobbled over to another tree to take a little break.

"This is going to be harder than I thought…" She said, with tears brimming in her eyes. The pain was getting to be to much, she needed to find a way to lessen it somehow.

"…what am I going to do now. My stupid pride gets in the way of everything." She said as she kicked the trunk of a tree with her injured foot. She screamed in pain as her foot made contact with the trunk.

"Sonofabitch…fucking piece of shit how could I be so careless?" She mumbled darkly to herself as she got her footing again and hobbled to another tree and took a break.

She was really regretting kicking and screaming as Kakashi was willing to help her. He must be really angry with her she though, and that didn't sit well with her at all.

After an hour of moving from tree to tree Rica could now move any farther. The pain was so intense and the swelling had not gone down one bit. Rica sat down and put her face in her hands as she resigned to the pain and cried bitterly.

-------------------

Kakashi walked back to camp humming as he went. He wasn't phased at Rica's attitude, but in the back of his mind he was concerned for her safety. There are people that lurk the forest, good and bad. Hopefully she didn't have to confront any bad people on her long trek back to camp. But that didn't change the fact that he was still annoyed with her.

Everyone was out of their tents going about their own business as Kakashi entered the area. Seeing that the fire pit was already made, it seemed like a good idea to start dinner.

"So, what's for dinner?" Kakashi said as he sat down.

"I don't know, I didn't bring anything with me to eat." Sasuke said.

"All I have is this cup of ramen, I thought everyone else brought food." Naruto said shuffling through his bag to see if he had brought any extra food, which he had none.

"Same here. I didn't bring anything." Sakura said.

Kakashi sighed and got up.

"Looks like we're going to have to get food the old fashioned way then, since I didn't bring any either."

Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura all gave Kakashi blank expressions as Luca jumped up and down behind them.

"Great, great a hunt right?" She said happily.

"I guess you could say that." Kakashi said rubbing the back of his head sheepishly as his students cast him death glares. "Sasuke, can I borrow your fishing gear?" He said breaking the death glares.

"Sure." He said as he ducked into his tent and threw Kakashi his pole and some bait. "Have fun."

Kakashi caught the pole and bait and tucked the packet of bait in one of his pockets.

"So who wants to come with me?"

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura pretended not to hear him as they went about what they were doing before he arrived. Luca was the only one that actually listened and was jumping up and down with her hand raised.

"I'll go, I'll go!" She said happily. "I haven't been fishing in so long." She said beaming.

"Alright, alright. Follow me." Kakashi said leaving the camp site back to where they came from to find the small stream.

-------------

Rica dried her eyes using her shirt sleeve as she got up to try again. The pain in her ankle was still pulsating and the slightest pressure caused her pain. She grimaced as she took a few hops forward and landed against a tree. She wasn't making any progress, and would still be in the forest by nightfall.

"…its…useless…" Rica said between breaths.

She had grown tired as she passed five smaller trees. Her vision began to blur as she took a few more hops towards another tree. She had over exerted herself to the point of passing out.

"…must keep going…need to show that bastard I can do this…on my own…" Rica said as she swayed on her feet before falling to the ground. She didn't move, or flinch. She was out cold.

-----------------

"So how many fish are we going to catch?" Luca said excitedly.

"As many as I can get." Kakashi replied.

"What kind of bait are you using?"

Kakashi threw her the bait packet.

"Is this all, what about live bait?"

"Maybe if we can find some." Kakashi said.

"Is it a weighted line?" Luca asked

"No."

"What kind of fish are we going to catch?"

"Whatever we can catch." Kakashi said, starting to become annoyed with all of Luca's questions.

"Are we there yet?"

"Almost." He said through gritted teeth as he quickened his pace to get away from the girl with all the questions.

"Hey! Wait up!" Luca said quickening her pace as well.

"Well, we're here." Kakashi said stopping before a bush, waiting for Luca to catch up.

He parted the bush and looked at the small stream before him and noticed that remnants of a small fire that Sasuke had used previously.

"Looks like someone was here before us." Luca said kneeling down before the old fire. "Not too long ago either."

Kakashi nodded and sat down. Luca sat beside him and baited the hook. Before Kakashi could say anything she cast the line out and sat against a tree with the pole in her grasp.

"You've done this before?" Kakashi said looking at the girl.

"I used to do this with my father all the time." She said with a faint smile. "He had taught me a lot."

Kakashi nodded and leaned back as well. Before long Luca had a fish on the line and was reeling it in. It was a good sized fish. Kakashi seized it and cut the fish's head off using his kunai blade.

"Thanks. I wasn't looking forward to doing that myself. Though we should do that when we get back to camp." Luca said as she cast out the line again. "Lets use that fish for bait to attract bigger fish."

Kakashi nodded as he looked at Luca. She seemed to know what she was talking about, which was different than her usual demeanor.

An hour had passed and Luca gathered a fair amount of fish. She didn't show any sign of wanting to go back to camp.

Whenever she hooked a fish, she reeled it in and handed it off to Kakashi. She baited the hook and cast it out again, her movements almost mechanical in nature.

"I miss him." Luca said solemnly, breaking the silence between them.

"Who?"

"My father." She said feeling a bit sad.

"What happened to him?"

"He had died in an accident only a few weeks before my tenth birthday. I would always go out and do things with him. We were the best of friends. He was the one that told me to smile, to laugh, and to be happy. I took what he said to heart, and even after he was gone I still laughed, smiled and acted happy, even though every fiber of my being told me to just break down." She said as she reeled in another fish.

Kakashi didn't say anything for a few minutes.

I guess that explains a few things. He thought as he looked at the girl. Luca was a lot stronger and smarter than she looked.

"Even after all this time you still laugh and smile, but why?" He asked.

"It's a part of who I am now. I can't really change that. I've been acting this way since I was ten, I'm eighteen now. It's an old habit to quit, y'know."

Kakashi nodded as he gathered up all the fish they caught.

"Well, looks like you fished enough for today, lets head back and prepare these." He said as he picked up the slimy fish.

Luca nodded as she reluctantly drew back the line and gathered everything else. As she followed Kakashi back to camp she took one last look at the stream and sighed.

-----------------

The two headed back to camp feeling slightly depressed. But as soon as Luca saw the others she put on a smile and waved. Setting down the equipment she went back to Kakashi and took some of the fish he was carrying.

"So fish was the only thing you could get?" Naruto said.

"Yeah, it's the easiest thing right now." Luca said as she smacked Naruto with a fish.

"Hey!"

"C'mon, its just a fish, it ain't gonna kill you." She said as she waved the fish in front of his face.

Naruto grabbed the fish out of her hand and waved it in her face.

"Don't mess with the food." Sakura said, snatching the fish from Naruto. "Need help preparing them?" She said to Kakashi.

"I was hoping you and the others would do that." He said setting the fish down.

"…Alright." Sakura said.

And with that Kakashi disappeared into his tent and shut the flap.

"Alright. Who's going to help me?" Sakura said as Sasuke and Naruto instantly disappeared.

Sighing she turned to Luca who was already cleaning a fish.

---------------------

Another hour had passed as Sakura and Luca finished with their last fishes.

"Better start cooking these before they get rotten." Sakura said looking for some flint to start the fire.

"I'll take care of it." Luca said as she disappeared into her tent with a lighter and went to light some dried leaves that she spread over the fire.

It took a while, but she eventually got the fire started. Luca fixed six fish onto sticks and set them over the fire to cook.

"Six fish on a spit, how many more do we have?" Luca said as she watched the fish cook.

"Six more. So two each." Sakura replied.

"Sounds about right." Luca said as she prepared another stick to affix the fish on and set it on the fire.

"Shouldn't be too long. I wonder where Rica is. I haven't seen her all day."

Sakura nodded as she noticed that she hadn't seen Rica all day either.

"Maybe I should go look for her." Luca said getting up.

"No, no. Let Kakashi do it. He hasn't done a thing all day except take walks and lounge around." Sakura said.

"Good point. I'll go tell him." Luca got up and tapped his tent, she could hear light snoring coming from within and opened the flap to find him resting.

"Get up man." She said as she kicked his foot slightly. Seeing no response she kicked again, but much harder.

"…What do you want?" Kakashi said as he rolled over.

"Rica hasn't been here all day, go look for her."

"Why don't you go look for her?" He said slightly annoyed, remembering back to earlier that day.

"I haven't seen you do anything all day, so you go."

Kakashi grunted and got out of the tent.

"I'll look." He said slightly annoyed as he went off into the forest. He had an idea where she was.

"Wonder what his problem is…" Luca said as she went back to the camp fire to check on dinner.

-------------------

It didn't take Kakashi long to find Rica passed out in plain view. It had been a while since she collapsed. The combined effort of her sprained ankle and too much physical activity drained her to the point of sever exhaustion.

Kakashi knelt down and poked her ankle. Getting no response he suddenly became worried. Her foot was still swollen and her head was burning up. Picking her up, he walked back to camp quickly.

He returned to camp as quickly as he came with Rica in his arms and set her down inside her tent.

"I need some cold water and compresses." He said to Luca who looked at him confusedly.

"For what?" She asked.

"Looks like Rica hurt herself while she was away, and passed out trying to get back. So hurry and get what I asked." He said quickly as he turned back to the tent.

Sakura rushed to the tent to see how Rica was doing. Rica was still unconscious as she lay in the tent. Sakura frowned as she felt her head, which hadn't went down in temperature since Kakashi last checked.

Luca hurried back with a small bucket full of cold water and two small towels and dipped them in the water and passed them to Sakura. She placed the one cold compress on Rica's forehead, and one on her ankle in hopes of reducing the swelling.

"Looks like she'll be fine." Sakura said as she moved outside. "She just needs to rest." Sakura sniffed the air a few times and blinked. "The food!" She shouted as she rushed to take the fish off the fire.

"Not too burnt, right?" Luca said as she inspected the fish.

"It should be alright." Kakashi said as he took the sticks from her and set them down to cool. "The boys should be back soon, hopefully."

Luca and Sakura nodded as they watched Kakashi go back into the tent to check on Rica.

Rica seemed to be a lot better. She was sleeping soundly as he changed the cold compress on her head and foot. The swelling on her foot had went down considerably and looked like it was going to be okay.

Kakashi sighed as he looked at her. He felt guilty for leaving her behind even when she protested to having him help her.

"FOOD." Luca shouted at the top of her lungs.

He took one last look at her before exiting the tent to join the others.

------------------------

**End of chapter ten**

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Not much left, and running out of ideas to fill the gaps. D:

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**Reviewer Responses**

**Naruto Fan** - Thank you for all the reviews, I really appreciate the feedback:D


	11. An Enlightening Experience pt 2

**Disclaimer -** I do not own Naruto. Though I do own the characters I make up to fill up space.

**Author's Note -** Making it longer than I expected to. :D Update times will be extended since I will be writing a few parts each day, or when I find time to really sit down and concentrate. I will also go back and re-read a few chapters and edit them before finishing. So probably before chapter twelve is uploaded I will go through the first nine and edit them. Chapter ten is the first one I edited before uploading, I might re-upload it again for the sake of uploading.Edited parts of the story will be marked, so if you don't wish to read the entire chapter, you don't have to.

Thank you once again for reading and reviewing. I like all feedback, and I'm surprised I've received no flames.

bows

Clarification -

---------------- Scene changes mostly.

Thoughts

Whatever else

(inner Sakura)

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**Chapter Eleven -** An Enlightening Experience Part Two

-------------------

Everyone sat around the fire in silence after eating. Everyone was silent, either looking down at the ground, or into the dancing flames. Naruto dozed off after eating Rica's portion of the meal with Luca beside him, her head on his shoulder. Sakura was doodling with a twig in the sand, while Sasuke had his attention up towards the star-filled sky above them. Kakashi was staring into the fire, for once ignoring his book, which laid opened on his lap.

He felt guilty for leaving Rica on her own, especially in her condition. He knew he should have brought her back to camp despite her constant protesting. But he just reached his limit for some reason.

"Sensei, do you think she's going to be alright?" Sakura said, snapping Kakashi out of his train of thought.

"She should be fine in a day or two." He said as he strained to look at her over the glow of the fire.

Sakura nodded as she scraped her twig along the sand in a circular pattern.

"I really hope so."

"No worries." He said with a faint smile. "I'm going to check on her before going to bed.

With that he got up, leaving his book behind and walked into the tent in which Rica was resting fitfully.

Her ankle was no longer swollen, but a bruise was in its place. No serious damage was done, so she should be able to walk normally within a few days. The only problem was that she hadn't woken up since they arrived back at camp. Her fever would come and go, and from the looks of it her fever had not broken yet.

Kakashi sat down beside her and felt her head. Her fever had not gone down, but seemed to increase. He took a small towel and dipped it into the cold water bucket by the entrance of the tent and placed it on her forehead again. Rica moved slightly when he placed the compress on her forehead.

"It hurts…" Rica mumbled faintly in her sleep.

Rica moved around slightly as if to defend herself, she was dreaming. Kakashi looked at her and placed her hands back at her sides and watched her for a while.

"Forgot my book…" He whispered as he watched Rica twist around in her sleep. It didn't matter though.

Sighing, Kakashi got up to go to his own tent.

"Please don't leave me alone…not again…please stay…" Murmured Rica in her sleep.

Kakashi stood there frozen for a few seconds.

Surely she wasn't talking to me. She must be dreaming…

He shook his head and started to leave again.

"…not again…" Rica murmured.

Feeling slightly obligated to stay he turned around and sat back down.

----------------------

Dream Format

A 12 year old Rica was sitting in her living room as her parents hurriedly got ready for work. None of them noticed their daughter sitting there shouting for them to at least say goodbye.

Her mother and father ran up to her, kissed her on each cheek as if it was a part of every morning and left the house without even saying "have a good day at school." She just sat there staring at the front door as the school bus rolled up to the front of her house and honked twice.

--

12 year old Rica ran up the front steps of her house after getting off the school bus and ran inside her house. Not even her brother was home, since he was rarely at home too. She was tired of being alone, and tired of her parents never even acknowledging her presence.

--

Another morning, but this time a 19 year old Rica stood eye to eye with her parents and pleaded for them to just stay for a while. Her mother kept looking to her watch and tapping her foot impatiently. She looked annoyed, but sorry as well for not being able to spend some time with her only daughter. Her father just gave her a quick hug and a ten dollar bill and left for work.

"Maybe this weekend we'll do something."

"I don't want to be alone anymore mom"

"Don't you have your friends?" her mother asked.

"Yes, but I miss you mom. You're never around anymore."

"I'm a very busy woman. There are just some things I can't put on hold."

"Even if it costs your family?" Rica said with tears in her eyes.

"My family will always be there. But this job might be gone tomorrow." her mother said as she walked to the door. "Have a good day dear." She smiled and left.

"…Your job will always be there, but perhaps tomorrow I won't be." she said the tears flowing freely.

"…Please don't leave me alone…not again…please stay…" Rica said to the closed door.

She was tired of being alone, and ignored by her own family.

Little did she know that she was going to be leaving her world that day.

-------------------------------

Kakashi sighed and felt Rica's forehead again.

"Still hot." He said tiredly.

"Sensei, are you in there?" Sakura said through the closed flap of the tent.

"Yes."

She peeked her head in and tossed Kakashi his book.

"I put dirt on the fire and got the others to turn in, you should too. Goodnight sensei." Sakura said and quickly pulled her head out of the tent to go back to hers.

"Goodnight." he said as she walked off.

Kakashi stretched out beside Rica, who was still sleeping fitfully and opened his book. He couldn't concentrate on the book for very long and put it aside. He had a long day. He turned his head to check on Rica once again and fell asleep.

---------------------

Luca stood outside Rica's tent and blinked. Sakura saw her standing there and without a word she dragged Luca into her tent.

"Problem solved." She said as she closed the flap.

"Yeah." Luca replied blinking in confusion.

"Here, take this." Sakura said as she threw Luca an extra blanket. "Get some sleep."

Sakura got into her sleeping bag and went to sleep. Luca was still sitting there, even more confused.

_If there are two people in Rica's tent…he wouldn't…_

she thought as she laid back on the hard ground.

Shrugging it off, Luca shut her eyes and went to sleep as well.

---------------------

The sun peeked over the trees bathing the campsite in a golden glow. It was a clear and perfect day, or at least the start of one. Luca rolled over and opened one eye. She got up and crawled out of the tent. All her muscles were sore due to sleeping on the hard ground. Groaning she stretched and yawned and surveyed the surrounding area. The entire area had a serene feel to it, only the sounds of nature could be heard.

Walking stiffly, Luca made her way to the cliff's end and stared off into the distance. Being out in the wilderness subdued her somewhat, for it brought back memories of earlier years.

Several minutes later Luca turned her back on the great expanse of forest and walked back to the tents. Curious, she walked over to Rica's tent to see if Kakashi actually slept with her.

Luca opened the flap and to her surprise lay Kakashi and Rica. This time Rica being the one clinging to Kakashi as if he was some sort of giant stuffed animal. Luca's left eye twitched as she bit back the urge to point and shout like she did last time. She managed to stand there for several minutes in a volatile state, if anyone disturbed her, she would surely be pointing and shouting and carrying on like last time.

Eventually Luca shut the flap and walked back to Sakura's tent. Half way there she saw Sasuke get out of his tent stretching and yawing. Smiling, Luca got an idea.

"Mornin', can I use your fishing gear?" Luca asked cheerfully, perhaps a little too cheerfully.

"Mmm…yeah." Sasuke pointed to the tent and yawned.

Luca ducked into his tent and emerged with the gear. She was careful not to disturb Naruto who had taken up most of the space without Sasuke in the tent. Luca hummed happily as she walked briskly through the forest to find her spot where she had fished the day before.

---------------------

Kakashi tried rolling over in his sleep only to find out that it was damn near impossible to do with Rica clinging to him. He opened one eye to find her clinging to him like a little child.

Ok…this is new…

he thought as he tried to get out of her grip, this too seemed pretty damn impossible.

He tried poking her with his semi free hand, which yielded no results. Sighing he bent his head down so he could be closer to her ear.

"Wake up." he whispered.

He laid there for several seconds without her moving.

"…I don't want to." she murmured in her sleep.

Damn girl is having dreams again…must get her off…

Kakashi resumed his poking, which still did nothing but make Rica squeak ever so often.

"Rica, time to wake up." he said in a normal voice right next to her ear.

"Five more minutes dammit…" Rica said tightening her grip.

Blinking, Kakashi sat up, taking Rica with him. Only then did she wake up. She sat there confused and clinging to Kakashi, which made her even more confused.

"What the hell is going on?" She said looking around.

"That I'd like to know too."

"Why are you here? Why am I holding onto you? And again why are you here?" her eyes narrowed at him, she didn't forget how he left her yesterday.

"I fell asleep here watching you. You held on to me in your sleep. And you seem to have forgotten what happened to you yesterday." he said casually.

"Like I'd forget you leaving me." she said annoyed.

"Only because you were so determined to make it back on your own. You passed out about two miles from camp. You're lucky that I decided to go out there and look for you, otherwise you'd be stuck there all night, and who knows who or what could have found you." he said raising his voice a little.

Rica's expression softened as she let go of him and looked down at her hands.

"I know." she said feeling slightly ashamed.

Without thinking Kakashi gave her a quick hug, which made Rica's head shoot back up again.

"What was that for?" she asked with a cock eyed expression.

"I'm just happy you're alright. It would be a shame if anything happened."

Rica nodded and touched her ankle.

"Its still a little sore. But I think I can walk on it a little later." Rica said as she applied a little pressure on her foot. "Better yet, I can probably walk now."

"I wouldn't try it just yet." Kakashi said looking at her bruised ankle.

"Well, I'm going to." without waiting for Kakashi to say anything, Rica crawled out of the tent and stood up. It didn't hurt to walk on it, just really sore. She limped slightly around the tent and crawled back inside.

"See, I'm fine. I just can't run." she said as she got in a comfortable position.

"Good. Now I am going to see to breakfast." Kakashi said as he exited the tent.

Breakfast was a good idea, but what was there. Fish? Again. Who knows. Kakashi walked up to Sasuke who was standing in the same place Luca was previously and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Where's the fishing gear I borrowed from you yesterday?" he asked.

"Luca has it." he said staring off into the distance.

Smiling Kakashi walked off into the forest to see where the other one had run off to.

------------------

Luca was humming happily as she unhooked her 15th fish. She flung it onto a pile of squirming fish as she cast off another hook and waited, still humming.

Kakashi watched her for several minutes from a high branch just above where Luca was sitting. Smiling he jumped down from the branch and appeared next to Luca, who jumped in surprise.

"W-what are you doing here?" Luca asked, startled.

"Just seeing where the fishing gear ran off to." his gaze turned to the growing pile of fish "Looks like you've been busy."

Luca smiled as another fish bit the line, she quickly reeled it in and placed it with the rest.

"You know what, I'll just take what you have now and come back later." Kakashi said as he picked up the fish, struggling to keep a hold of them all.

Luca just nodded as she paid attention to what she was doing. Kakashi disappeared, and reappeared with the fish back at the site.

He prepared another fire and cleaned the fish. He hastily put the fish on sticks and stuck them over the flames. There was more than enough for everyone, so Naruto could eat his fill without taking someone else's meal.

Rica walked out of her tent and joined Kakashi as he was watching the fish cook.

"Perhaps we should set some out to dry if we can't eat it all." Rica said as she sat down next to him.

"Mmhmm." was all Kakashi said

Sakura emerged from her tent with a yawn as she waved to Rica.

"Good to see that you're alright." Sakura said smiling.

Rica nodded as she was too watching the fish.

"That's a lot of fish." Sakura said staring at the as well.

"Thanks to Luca. She's still down there with another big pile by now." Kakashi said getting up. "I'm going to bring her back before she fishes all the fish out of the stream." with that he disappeared once again.

Kakashi reappeared next to Luca, making her jump.

"Stop doing that." she said as she fumbled for her rod.

"Sorry." Kakashi said scratching the back of his head. "Its time to head back to camp."

"who says?" Luca said without looking at him. "I'm having fun."

"You want food don't you?" Kakashi said looking down at her.

"Yes…"

"Then lets go. Bring what you've caught." Kakashi said as he picked up some fish.

Luca grabbed the rest and started walking back to camp.

"What are you waiting for. Lets go?" she called back at him.

Kakashi sighed and disappeared.

-------------------

Kakashi appeared back at camp a short while later with another arm full of fish. He blinked a few times as Naruto sat by the fire picking his teeth with one of the fish bones. All the fish had disappeared while he was gone.

"Did you eat them all?" Kakashi said looking at Naruto in disbelief.

"Not all, Sakura, Sasuke, and Rica managed to get a few out of my hands." he said with a sad expression.

"Well it looks like you've eaten your fill. Now you clean and prepare these fish, and the fish Luca is coming back with. There are other people that would like to eat too you know." Kakashi said as he dumped the pile of fish on Naruto, who only looked up at him with sad eyes.

"B-but."

"No buts. You do me a favor." Kakashi said as he walked off.

Naruto grunted and went about preparing the fish with a sour expression on his face.

----------------------

Everyone but Naruto ate their fill once all the fish had been cooked. Naruto's hunger sticken expression only gained the sympathy of Luca who secretly handed him a smaller fish.

"You know, I can't wait to get some real food." Luca said feeling a little sick from eating only fish.

"Yeah, I know." Kakashi said as he got up. "But right now, I feel the urge to nap." he waved to everyone and disappeared into his own tent.

"Looks like he's finally going back to his own tent." Luca said with a smirk.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Sasuke said looking up at Luca.

"Oh, Kakashi slept in Rica's tent and I found Rica clinging to him like a stuffed animal in the morning." Luca said, unable to hide her smile.

"W-what?" Rica said looking right at Luca. "What in the hell are you talking about. I wasn't clinging to him."

"Oh, just like he wasn't clinging to you the other day." Luca said smugly.

"Kakashi-sensei slept with Rica?" Sakura asked.

"I don't know, honest." Rica said still staring at Luca.

"Well, when I went to check up on you this morning he was in your tent, and you were clinging to him."

"I was out since yesterday afternoon. I never knew he was there. He must have decided to stay on his own, since I never told him to stay." Rica said defiantly.

"Interesting." Sasuke said as he watched the two girls fight over who slept with who and for what reason.

"I know. Pretty strange don't you think." Sakura said turning to Sasuke.

"I've got to agree with you there, Sakura." Sasuke said standing up. "Lets get away from those two."

"With pleasure Sasuke-kun" the Inner Sakura was bouncing with glee at the invitation.

"Naruto, want to join us?" Sasuke said before he went on any further.

"Sure!" he said getting up and running up to Sasuke.  
(Goddamnit. My plans have been foiled again!) Inner Sakura shouted.

The three wandered off into the forest leaving the two girls to their argument.

-------------

"See, he must really like you Rica!" Luca said pointing at her.

"For the thousandth time that's complete and utter bullshit." Rica said folding her arms across her chest.

"Not from what I'm seeing." Luca replied.

"Well, to hell with what you think. Who cares if he does or if he doesn't."

"Wow, you really don't like the guy do you?" Luca said putting her hand down.

"He's a perfect gentleman."

Luca burst out in laughter rolling around in the dirt.

"Not by the books he reads, that's for damn sure."

Rica snorted and looked as if she was pouting.

"Oh cheer up Rica. Who cares if a pervert digs you."

"He's not a complete pervert…and I doubt he "digs" me."

"Eh, its not like it would work out anyway. We have to go home at some point." Luca added.

Rica nodded and stood up.

"Luca, want to help me get to the stream?" she said as she applied a little more pressure to her injured foot.

"Sure."

"I can walk alright, but if I need help, help me." Rica said as she walked off in the direction of the stream. Luca nodded and followed her.

-----------------------

Kakashi sat up in his tent, having heard everything the two girls talked about. He laughed at Luca's wild accusations and shook his head. Good thing she was wrong. Well, she was part right about the pervert accusation as he tossed his book aside, otherwise she was all wrong. He felt it wrong to have any sort of feeling for a girl of Rica's age. Yawning he stretched out on the floor of his tent and took a nap.

--------

A few hours later, everyone assembled back to where they were earlier in the day. Naruto and Sasuke were covered in dirt and leaves while Sakura looked at them shaking her head. Luca and Rica wandered back a few minutes after the three had arrived and took their seats.

"So what did you guys do?" Sakura said looking at Rica and Luca.

"Oh, Luca helped me to the stream where I swam around while she watched." Rica said as she squeezed some water out of her shirt.

"Yeah, she swims like a frog." Luca chimed in as Rica punched her arm. "Ow, you didn't have to do that."

"Well you didn't have to say I swim like a frog." Rica snapped.

"Its true." Luca replied.

Sighing Rica looked at the two boys and blinked.

"What'd you guys do?" she asked.

"Oh they tested out their new techniques on each other." Sakura said.

Rica and Luca nodded as they looked at the two boys.

"You know, you should clean off. There's a hot spring not too far from here." Rica said as she pointed to where the hot spring lay.

"Good idea." Sasuke mumbled as he got up to get stuff from his tent as Naruto followed.

"That does sound like a good idea." Sakura said smiling. "Lets all go."

The three girls nodded and retreated to their tents to get the stuff they needed and chased after Sasuke and Naruto how were already ahead of them.

---------------

By the time Sakura, Rica and Luca arrived at the hot spring, Naruto and Sasuke were already in it, swimming around. Well, Naruto was splashing around making a ruckus while Sasuke was staying in one spot relaxing.

The hot spring wasn't very large. About the size of a public swimming pool with a large rock in the middle providing a natural divider if needed.

"Well, we'll take the other side." Sakura said as she walked around the spring to the other side.

The three got undressed and slipped in without being seen by the other two. The water was at perfect temperature, just enough to relax the muscles.

"This is nice." Rica said as she waded around a little.

"It is." Sakura said leaning against the rock.

Luca nodded as she waded around the entire area. The three sat in silence as they heard Sasuke yelling at Naruto on the other side. From the sound of it, he was splashing Sasuke a little too much.

Sakura, Rica and Luca all sighed in unison as they heard a few punches hitting their mark. All was silent for a few minutes until Naruto's loud voice filled the area once again.

"Why'd the hell did you hit me!" Naruto shouted.

"I told you to stop, baka." Sasuke said unclenching his fist.

Naruto shrugged and swam around to where the girls were. A shriek rang out as a fist made contact with Naruto's head. A defeated Naruto swam back to where he previously was with a gigantic bump on the top of his head.

"I just wanted to say hi." he said shaking his head.

Sasuke sighed as she ducked his head underwater.

"That damn Naruto, why does he have to be so insensitive?" Sakura fumed as she unclenched her fist and hit the water with her open palm.

"I don't think he was trying to pull anything." Luca said looking to where the boys should be.

Sakura growled as she hit the water a few times and stood up.

"Lets get going." she said simply as she got out and wrapped her towel around herself.

Rica and Luca nodded to each other and got out as well. The three walked past Naruto and Sasuke as they made their way back. Sakura shot Naruto a death glare while Rica and Luca waved to the two boys who just sat there staring for a few minutes as they left.

"Girls…" Naruto said rubbing the bump on his head.

"Troublesome if you ask me." Sasuke replied.

"Turning into Shikamaru eh?" Naruto said as he winced.

Sasuke shrugged and waded to where his stuff lay.

I'm gonna go. You can stay if you like." he said as he got out.

Naruto nodded as he swam around the entire area a few times before getting out and heading back to camp as well.

---------------

The rest of the day went by without incident as everyone went about their own business. Luca had found Kakashi's book and took it and kept herself in her tent for most of the day. She didn't even come out as everyone else ate dinner, claiming she wasn't hungry. Rica believed it since Luca could go a long time without eating if she found something she really liked.

After dinner everyone went their separate ways. Naruto wandering off into the forest while Sasuke sat by the cliff's edge to look up at the stars. Sakura decided to turn in early since she didn't feel like staying up.

Kakashi sat by the fire just gazing at it since he lost his book to Luca, who was still in her tent reading it. Rica sat directly across from him doing the same thing. She found it calming to just sit in front of the fire doing nothing but staring into it's depths. Kakashi yawned and stretched as he stood up. He waved to Rica who absentmindedly waved back and went to his tent to retrieve something from within it. He reappeared seconds later and wandered off into the forest, leaving Rica the only one out side.

She didn't notice anything until a half an hour later. Looking up she looked around the entire area to find that everyone was either out, or inside their tent. She got up and stretched. Her muscles still hurt from the other day, so she went and retrieved her towel and a change of clothes and wandered off in the direction of the hot spring for another good soak.

-----------------

After walking as carefully as she could, Rica made it to the hot spring and sighed happily. It was nice to be alone and in a peaceful place. The hot spring looked especially inviting since the steam rose from its waters as moonlight covered the entire area. Making it look quite spooky, yet peaceful at the same time. A normal person would find it too spooky and leave, but Rica wasn't a normal person by any means and found it perfectly inviting.

She slipped in silently after folding her clothes neatly at the edge of the spring. She sat there in silence taking in all the night time sounds as she heard someone on the other side. Holding her breath she sat there motionless, her heart racing. Who was on the other side, a friend or a foe? Most likely a foe since she knew few people.

She released her breath silently as she slowly moved along the rock to try and find out who was on the other side. She peeked her head around some plants only to find what looked like to be a ghost. She ducked her head as quickly as she peeked around to see who it was. She sat there in silence, her heart still racing.

Did she see a ghost? She wasn't sure. Rica slowly peeked again to take a longer look, and to her relief it was only Kakashi leaning against the rock with his eyes closed.

Rica blinked a few times before she withdrew her head and leaned against the rock as well.

At least it wasn't someone I didn't know…but why him? God fucking damnit, what if he knows I'm here?

Rica thought as she held her hand over her heart in a feeble attempt to slow it down.

She drew out another silent breath as she started to relax. Just as soon as she started to relax she heard Kakashi move around on the other side.

"I knew you were there the entire time. There's no reason for you to be afraid or uncomfortable." Kakashi said aloud as Rica ducked her head under water really quickly.

She wasn't used to being around members of the opposite sex in situations like this. Even though either person couldn't see anything of significance she still felt weird. Rica reemerged as she let out a loud sigh.

"You can come around to this end if you feel lonely." Kakashi said lazily as Rica blinked a few times.

"A-alright." was all she managed to say as she submerged herself completely spare her head as she waded to the other side.

Rica felt a little better as she stayed close to the edge of the rock separating the two sides. She looked at him and smiled.

"You look like a ghost." she said trying to hide her laughter. He indeed looked like a ghost the last time she saw him at night.

"Eh?" Kakashi said as he turned his head to look at her. Rica ducked a little lower into the water as his gaze met hers.

"Nothing, nothing. Why do you still keep that bloody mask on, isn't it annoying?" Rica asked changing the subject.

"I had it off until I heard you got in." he said casually.

"So you knew I was here the entire time?"

"Yes. I heard you walking up and getting in." he said.

"Wow. You must have excellent hearing then." Rica said blinking in amazement. "I didn't realize you were here until I heard you moving around."

"I did that on purpose." Kakashi said smiling a little.

"Why'd you do that?"

"Didn't want to scare you when I walked by you upon leaving." he said lazily.

"Well you scared the hell out of me regardless." Rica said a little cross.

"Better this way than the other way."

Rica nodded in agreement as she looked around. The two sat in silence for a few minutes, each passing minute growing more uncomfortable than the next.

"Why do you wear that mask?" Rica asked suddenly causing Kakashi to turn and face her.

"I've been wearing it for so long that its just second nature. I'd feel "naked" without it." he said simply.

"Then can I see you without it?" she asked cocking her head to one side to get a better look at his face.

"I don't know…" he sat there for a minute thinking. "My students have asked me the same thing several times before, they've even tried to pull down the mask as I slept sometimes…so…"

He sat there for a few seconds contemplating whether or not he should show her. It wasn't like there was anything wrong with him, he just felt odd letting someone see him without his mask. Sighing, he lowered his mask and turned to Rica, who just sat there with her mouth open.

Hot damn…

she thought as Kakashi reached over and shut her mouth for her.

"What?" he asked as he saw Rica just sitting there and blinking.

"N-nothing at all. I just wasn't expecting you to be so…so…"

"Normal?" he finished her sentence. "You expected some sort of deformity?"

"N-no, not at all." she said feeling slightly relieved that he finished her sentence. She wasn't planning to say normal, but handsome. But that would have sounded weird coming from her.

Kakashi decided to keep the mask off for a while since it felt nice. He sighed and stared up at the stars as Rica made a great effort not to stare at him for too long. She felt even more uncomfortable around him now without his mask. She didn't know why either, and chose not to dwell on it. Since bad things happen when she would dwell on matters for too long.

Having enough of the stars, Kakashi turned his head and looked at Rica for a moment. She ducked her head underwater and stayed for as long as she could handle. She rushed up for air as Kakashi turned his head away. Rica's face turned tomato red as she covered herself with her arms.

"I didn't see anything, don't be so uncomfortable. We're both old enough not to care." he shrugged as he turned to face her.

"Well, maybe you are. I've never been around a guy in this situation before." she said quickly. "Besides, you're a guy, and probably been in many situations like this before." she said regaining some of her normal courage.

"Actually, I haven't. You've seen one body, you've seen 'em all." he shrugged.

Rica blushed a little at the comment and moved around the spring feeling more confident than she did before. She turned to sit across from him and sighed.

"Where'd you get all those scars from?" she said moving a little closer to get a better look.

"Oh, missions, Gai, and some events I'd rather not talk about." he said pointing to a few on his arms and chest.

Rica nodded as a mental image of Gai and Kakashi doing something stupid came to mind. She laughed to herself as she moved back again.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing of importance." she replied still laughing to herself.

Kakashi blinked in confusion and shook his head.

"Thanks for coming." he said after a moment of silence.

"I didn't know you were here, I just came to be by myself for a little while until I heard you." Rica replied.

"Ah, I see. But regardless, its nice having someone to talk to." he said

"Oh course, its always nice to have someone just to have a random conversation with." Rica nodded as she moved back to where she previously was.

"So, yeah thanks." he said as he put an arm around Rica's shoulder and pulled her close for a half hug. He suddenly pulled away remembering how uncomfortable she had been.

Rica blinked a few times, but didn't feel uncomfortable at all.

"Sorry." he said quickly.

"Eh, no big deal. You seen one you've seen 'em all." she repeated his words from earlier.

Kakashi smiled as he stretched.

"We should get going, go get changed." he said

"Good idea." she said as she disappeared to the other side.

Rica quickly swam to where her towel and clothes lay folded neatly. She got out and quickly wrapped the towel around herself.

"Alright, I'm decent." she said aloud as Kakashi appeared a few seconds later fully clothed.

"Decent?" he said looking at her

"And you put your mask back on." she said sounding a little sad.

Kakashi shrugged as he walked past her. Rica followed close behind until they reached the site. Someone had put out the fire as snores could be heard from Naruto and Sasuke's tent.

Kakashi waved to Rica silently as she slipped into her tent and felt her way to her sleeping bag and slipped into it. She was too tired to change her clothes. Luca had fallen asleep with Kakashi's book on her face. Rica smiled as she removed the book from her friend's face and placed it next to her.

Kakashi too felt his way around his tent getting ready to go to bed. He was tired as well.

"Tomorrow we'll go back to the village. I could use a good shower." he said aloud as he got into his sleeping bag.

Outside a slight breeze swept over the camp site as everyone slept peacefully. A short time later clouds began to come in from the east, covering the moon and most of the stars.

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End of Chapter Eleven

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Well, took me long enough. XD Worked on a little bit of it each day. Chapter twelve should be out soon enough. After I finish making the proper edits to the previous chapters and a possible update to my other story.

Review Responses

Krows Scared - Don't worry about me rushing anything. I'll take my time.

Usagibud - Thank you very much!

Taskei - Thank you, and I will!

Naruto Fan - Thank you for reading :3

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Thank you all for reading and reviewing!


	12. And Back Again

**Disclaimer -** I do not own Naruto, only the weird characters I create to fill space.

**Author's Note -** Well, we're at the final chapter. I left some things out intentionally so I can add it in future story lines. The second story should come out shortly after this one is complete. The next story will probably be more OOC than the last one. But I'll make it work somehow.

Again, thank you all for reading and reviewing!

--------------

**Chapter Twelve -** And back again

---------------

"Looks like our little adventure is coming to an end." said Damon as he flipped idly through his book. "Seems like my part is coming into play. Can't wait till Rica finds out who sent her there." he said with a smile.

Damon waved and disappeared only to show up on the outskirts of Konoha. He knew where they all were, and he knew they were due back in a few hours. Sticking his hands into his dark colored robes, he made his way into Konoha to kill time.

---------------

The sun did not shine. Instead of a sunbathed morning, a chilly overcast day covered the forest as far as the eye can see. No birds sang their songs, no feeling of peace. Rica was the first to wake. She quickly changed into her clothes and stepped outside her tent and stretched, only shortly to draw her arms around herself in an attempt to keep warm.

"Wow…cold morning." she said between yawns as she looked around at the other tents to see if anyone was awake.

Light snores could be heard from Naruto and Sasuke's tent, while the other two were silent. Rica did not spend a long time outside, for it was cold. She ducked back into her tent and crept back into the sleeping bag. She sat there for a few minutes deep in thought.

Today seems a bit off…I can't put my finger on it.

Rica drew her sleeping bag up to her chin and let out a deep sigh. There was something off about the day. It wasn't due to the change in temperature or weather. Seeing that there was no reason to be awake, Rica drifted off to sleep for a little while longer.

Shortly after Rica went back to sleep, Luca woke up and crawled out of the tent. She too drew her arms around herself and walked around the camp site to wake herself up. She had been up thinking as well, despite her voracious reading. She had sensed some sort of tension between Kakashi and Rica. And she wanted to know exactly what it was.

If she went to Rica first, it would be the same thing. "Bullshit" this and "bullshit" that. She knew her friend well enough to figure out that it wasn't complete bullshit. Something similar happened a few years back, and it felt like déjà vu to her.

"Who to speak to first…the man or the beast?" she said to herself as she paced around the now extinguished fire pit.

"The man seems easiest to crack, while the beast…well, the beast…" Luca paused and thought back to all the times in which Rica would throttle her for saying things. "The beast will definitely come last. I don't want a headache this early in the morning."

Luca wrapped her arms around herself even tighter as she wandered over to Kakashi's tent. If he wasn't awake, he would be by the time she got in there.

Luca tapped on the flap of the tent and waited for something to move inside. Hearing nothing, she just opened the flap and sat by his feet, watching him sleep.

"Sleeping like a baby…" Luca whispered to herself. "Sucks to be him then." a small smile crept across her face as she inhaled deeply.

"WAKE UP." Luca shouted as Kakashi rolled over. The shouting didn't phase him, just woke up him out of a sound sleep.

"Nnn…what do you want?" Kakashi said rolling over to face the girl sitting down.

Luca pressed her hands together and sighed. "I've been thinking lately, and there are some things I'd like to be made clear, and I mean crystal." she said in a serious tone. "Soooo, want to make things all crystal for me?" she said in an overly happy voice.

"Eh?" Kakashi said as she straightened his headband over his eye. He barely heard a word Luca said.

"Don't play dumb man. Now answer the questions." Luca snapped.

"Well, you need to ask them before I can answer them:" Kakashi replied in a "duh" tone.

"Oh…right…moving on. First question. Can I see what's under the mask?" Luca said, she didn't want to get into the main question just yet.

"No." Kakashi replied quickly, but calmly.

"Damn." Luca paused for a second before her second question. "And why not?"

"It would get rid of the mystery." Kakashi paused and cocked an eyebrow at Luca. "I know you're here about something else, so just spill it so I can go back to sleep."

"Fine. Fine. Be that way. Alright, now I've been wondering about how you act towards my friend…" Luca began.

"There's nothing going on. Why would I, and why would she?" he said quickly.

"Don't give me that shit, just tell me the truth. _Please." _Luca put an extra emphasis on the please.

"To be honest, I don't know how or what I feel. If it makes you feel any better, there is something there, and if I find out, you'll be the first to know what it is. You really care about your friend, and its the least I could do to tell you." he said lazily as he just looked at Luca.

Luca blinked in confusion. "So there is something?"

"Yes. But I don't know what it is."

"Describe it to me then, maybe I can shed a little light on it, y'know." Luca said with an expression resembling "wtf".

"I can be myself around her, and you if you're not trying to kill Naruto. Though with your friend, I just feel calm." he said hesitantly.

"Sounds like something. Though you seem to be comfortable around her in a friendly way." Luca said trying to analyze the situation.

"I guess so. But lately its been…different."

"Different you say…hn." Luca put a finger to her lip and thought.

"What?" he said as he looked at her expecting something.

"You dig 'er, face the facts man. Its gonna take some time and then its gonna hit you like a ton of bricks to the face." Luca said with an abnormally large grin.

"Alright…if you say so. Now I'm going back to sleep. We're going to be leaving in a few hours." Kakashi said as he rolled over and threw the sleeping bag over his head.

Luca sat there blinking for a few minutes.

_Now to tangle with the beast._

She crawled out of the tent and went back to hers. On the way back she waved to Naruto and Sasuke who got out of their tent and were stretching. They waved back as she crawled into her tent and sat next to Rica, who was sound asleep.

Luca blinked as she poked Rica several times, yielding no response whatsoever. She took another deep breath and shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Wakey wakey eggs and bakey!" Luca screamed as Naruto and Sasuke stopped dead in their tracks and looked at each other.

"Better than an alarm clock." Naruto said as he looked at the tent.

"Hn." Sasuke said as he started to move around again.

Rica woke up with a start and sat upright almost immediately.

"What the fuck was that for?" she said as she held her head.

"Just want to talk to you, is all." Luca said cheerfully.

"Can't it wait?" Rica said groggily.

"No, it can't. Lets talk. Now." Luca said suddenly turning serious.

"What is it then?" Rica said yawning.

"Well, I want to ask you a few questions. I'm confused on some things and I need answers so I don't have to think about it anymore." Luca replied.

"Come out with the questions then." Rica said as she stretched her arms.

"Alright. Lets cut to the chase. How do you feel about the man?" Luca blurted out.

"The who?" Rica said confusedly.

"Kakashi." Luca said in a flat tone.

Rica groaned and put a hand to her forehead. "Not this shit again, how many times do I have to tell you, I feel nothing."

"That's exactly what you said about Matteo. I remember it clearly. You were in denial, and you always said "I feel nothing" when you damn well felt something. He is/was your close male friend and you seem to act the same way you did with Matteo as you do Kakashi. Come to think of it, they do seem a lot alike." Luca said looking directly at Rica.

Rica turned a light shade of pink at hearing Matteo's name, the turned slightly darker at the mention of Kakashi and Matteo being similar. It was true. Though they had more differences than similarities.

"Well…" Rica said in a soft voice.

"Well what?" Luca said hurriedly.

"I feel something. Maybe its because he cares about me, unlike some people that should." she said as she stared at her hands in her lap.

"So you dig 'im?" she said with a bemused expression on her face.

"I don't know. It'd be the stupidest thing for me to even have feelings for someone that I won't even have a chance of being with. Look at our goddamn situation Luca. We're in a fucking fantasy land." Rica said feeling ashamed of herself.

"You've seen Fushigi Yuugi haven't you?" Luca said trying to hold back her laughter.

"Yes." Rica said flatly.

"Well, what happened to the two main characters?"

"Oh bull. That won't happen and you know it." Rica snapped.

"You never know." Luca said with a smile.

Rica and Luca sat together in silence for a few minutes before Rica snapped.

"I cave, I cave, I cave you are right, you win…its true…fucking damnit its true." Rica said rolling around the tent.

"What's true?" Luca said clearly oblivious.

Rica got up off the ground and met her friends gaze. She pressed her forehead against Luca's.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." she growled.

"I don't." Luca said in an oblivious tone. Though she knew exactly what she was talking about. She just wanted to hear her say it.

Rica sat back and blinked.

"You know exactly what I am talking about. I care, I don't know why, I don't know how, but I bloody hell care. And its been eating at me since day one. The hole is getting bigger and bigger, and the bigger it gets, the more scared I get. I don't know when we're going to be brought back home." Rica said in a exasperated tone.

"Then tell him." Luca said with a spaced out expression.

"I can't." Rica said.

"And why not?"

"It will ruin things for sure. This is not meant to happen. We were not meant to come here and fuck things up. And that would fuck things up." Rica wailed.

"Now how the hell do you know we were not meant to be here?" Luca said challenging her friend's logic.

"You've got a point." Rica said defeated.

"Then don't fuck up your chances and miss out like you did with Matteo. Besides, I doubt he'd refuse." Luca said with a smile.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rica said blinking at her friend.

Luca just sat there and smiled while Rica covered her head with a pillow and tried to disappear. She didn't want things to happen, she didn't want to care, and she didn't want to deal with stupid childish feelings such as love, hate, or whatever the hell you call it. It wasn't worth her time to deal with those emotions when there was more to life than just that.

She felt somewhat ashamed for even considering an animated character. Though it was every fan girl's fantasy to have their favorite character fall in love with them. She'd be the arch nemesis of an entire fan base, and even that didn't sit well with her.

She could see it now. Thousands of girls and some guys chasing her with sticks, swords and pitchforks wanting to rip apart every square inch of her. Rica shuddered at the thought. She let her mind wander to actually considering telling him how she felt. She gave herself a nice mental slap and let out a deep sigh.

By that time Luca had already exited the tent as was out trying to get the fire going. Rica got up again and stuck her head out of the tent. Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi were sitting around the pile of wood as they watched Luca have a hard time trying to set the thing ablaze.

Team 7 caught sight of Rica's head and waved. Kakashi noticed it too and waved as well. Rica quickly ducked back in her tent and fell backwards.

_What the fuck am I doing?_

Rica busied herself with cleaning the tent and stumbled upon Kakashi's book.

"So…what do you do to make people so fucking interested in you." Rica said as she opened the book to the first page and began to read. It didn't take long until she too got interested in the book.

------------------

"Why'd she hide so quickly?" Naruto said to everyone.

"Dunno." Luca said as she tried to light the fire.

Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke shrugged and went back to watching Luca fumble with the fire.

"I got it." Sasuke said as he used a jutsu and set the wood on fire.

"You could have done it sooner." Luca said as she placed her hands on her hips.

"It was fun to watch you squirm." Sasuke said with a slight smirk.

Luca stuck her tongue out at him and sat close to the fire to try and keep warm.

------------------

After eating a small breakfast Luca crawled into the tent and poked Rica who had fallen back to sleep as everyone ate.

"Yo, wake up. We're leaving soon." Luca said as she poked Rica's forehead with her index finger.

"…fine…let me change…" Rica said as she rolled onto her stomach. "So get out."

Luca made a face at Rica and crawled out of the tent. Sasuke and Naruto were already starting to pack up their belongings while Sakura and Kakashi just sat by the fire doing nothing. Luca shrugged and walked over to the two boys.

"Need any help?" she asked.

"Sure, take these." Naruto said as he flung her two sleeping bags. "Roll 'em up for us."

Luca did as she was told and rolled both the bags up neatly and set them aside. By the time she was done they finished folding up the tent and cramming it into its own little bag.

"Thanks." Naruto said as he picked up the bags and tossed them to Sasuke who put them away.

"You should go and get your stuff together. I can't wait till we get back to the village. The ramen needs me." Naruto said with a starry-eyed expression.

"Sounds like you need the ramen more than it needs you." Luca said as she patted his head.

Naruto gave her a little push towards her tent.

"Go. Clean." he said hurriedly.

Luca shrugged and walked over to the tent as Rica stepped out of it.

"Already packed everything." she said as she ducked back in to take out both bags and threw them to the side.

"Good. So the tent is all we need?" Luca asked

Rica nodded as Naruto ran towards them.

"I'll do it." he said hurriedly as he quickly took the tent apart and folded it. "Done." he said as he handed the tent to Rica who only looked at Naruto with a look of disbelief.

"Damn." she said as she looked at the tent, then at Naruto.

Naruto ran off to the other two tents and threw their contents out before taking each tent apart and quickly packing everything.

Sakura looked up to see what all the noise was about and gaped at Naruto flinging her stuff around.

"DON'T TOUCH THAT!" Sakura screamed as Naruto flung her clothes around.

She ran towards him and throttled him. Naruto fell to the ground with a gigantic bump on his head.

"Owww. Sakura-chan, I was only trying to help." he said with a slight whine.

"Don't throw my stuff around." she said as she fumbled around to get all her clothes back in order. "And don't be in such a hurry either. We have all day to get back to the village."

"But I want to go back now." he whined.

"Just wait." she said as she finally got all her stuff together.

Kakashi blinked as he watched everyone run around getting their stuff together. He yawned and got up from where he was sitting to get his own things packed before Naruto went and did it for him. It only took him about ten minutes to get everything in good order.

"So when does everyone want to leave?" he said as he walked up to the group.

Sasuke, Sakura and Luca said nothing while Rica shrugged. Naruto jumped up startling everyone.

"Lets go now!" he said with enthusiasm.

Kakashi blinked and looked at the boy for a minute before speaking.

"Not now. In a little while." he said simply as he walked off into the other direction and disappeared into the forest.

Naruto sat there with an open mouthed expression before falling backwards onto the ground kicking and punching the ground.

"Baka." Sasuke said looking down at him.

"I'm not a baka, bastard!" Naruto yelled up at him.

"Hn." he said as he walked off.

Naruto laid there for a few minutes before he walked off into the forest as well.

Sakura, Rica and Luca all looked at each other and shrugged before going off and finishing packing their things. Rica and Luca had already finished their share and sat down by the dying embers of the fire.

"I have a weird feeling about today." Rica said looking up at the sky, which was still overcast.

"What do you mean?" Luca replied.

"Well, I don't know who to put it, its just a weird feeling…" Rica paused for a second before going on. "Its like I have to do something, and if I don't do it, I won't have a chance to." she finished with a sigh.

"Hm. Weird." Luca sat there in silence for a few seconds before she sprung back to life again. "I KNOW. Tell 'im how you feel!"

Rica just looked at her friend with a blank expression before even trying to fight back.

"Maybe. Don't see what good it will do. Though that's not it…maybe…" she hated feeling like this. Indecisiveness wasn't a good thing to deal with.

"Find it soon, or you won't have a chance to do whatever it is you need to do." Luca said as she stood up. "I'm going to find Kakashi and drag him back to camp so we can get our asses back to the village." she said as she started to walk off. "Now you don't go and disappear like Naruto did."

Rica just nodded as her friend went off into the forest in search of the masked ninja. She sat there for several minutes trying to think of what she needed to do. Her attention eventually made it to her bag, in which a small paper was sticking out. Rica took it out and found it to be the comic strip that had freaked her out two days before.

It showed Rica and Luca in their day to day life doing what they do best - nothing. She still couldn't get over the fact that their lives were depicted in some weird comic. It really blurred the lines of which world was real, and which one was fiction. Her world could very much be fiction - but so could the world they were in now.

But whatever the outcome was. Both worlds were real to her. And she was starting to miss the one she had lived in for so long. It was only natural. Rica sighed audibly as she stuffed the paper back in her bag.

------------

Twenty minutes later Sakura and Rica heard random yelling not too far from where they were sitting. Luca had returned with Kakashi. She dragged him by the wrist. He appeared to be wet and slightly annoyed.

"This one took me out of the hot spring and forced me back here." he said trying to straighten his headband.

Sakura and Rica laughed for about a minute as a now frustrated Kakashi stood there trying to dry off his hair. It appeared that Rica caught him at the worst possible time. But that didn't seem to stop her one bit. She stood there triumphantly as if she caught a wild animal.

Kakashi groaned as he finished drying his hair and looked around.

"Where's Naruto and Sasuke?" he said turning to Sakura.

Sakura shrugged as Sasuke sauntered back into the campsite, hands in pockets. Naruto followed minutes later looking a tad disgruntled, occasionally shooting glares at Sasuke.

"Wonder what happened between them." Luca said as she watched Naruto.

"Dunno. Perhaps Sasuke refused to fight him again. Naruto tends to get moody whenever Sasuke refuses to fight him." Sakura said as she watched Naruto as well.

Kakashi spoke up causing all conversation to cease.

"Alright. Grab your things, we're heading back now." he said as he flung his backpack onto his back and started to walk the path they took to get there.

Everyone hurried to gather their things to follow the masked ninja, who had decided that a fast pace was the only pace to follow.

------------------------

Rica and Luca walked as fast as they could in order to keep a short distance behind team 7. The two girls lacked the physical endurance to keep up for an extended period of time. Luca would have been able to keep up, if it wasn't for the fact that she was carrying the bulk of the supplies, including the tent which weighed a considerable amount.

Their adventure in the forest proved to be fun, dangerous, and even enlightening to some people within the group. Little did they know that their adventure was about to end.

"C'mon you guys, slow down a bit." Luca said under the strain of her load.

Kakashi slowed down his pace somewhat while the others continued on their own paces. Sasuke and Naruto lead the group while Sakura walked a short distance behind them. Kakashi slowed down so the girls wouldn't be too lonely way in back, but still a good distance away from them.

"Gee, thanks." Luca grunted as she shifted the weight of her pack so it would be easier to keep up.

Rica remained silent the entire trip back. She was going through a mental overload of information. She didn't know how to take what Luca had told her earlier, nor did she really want to mess things up between everyone.

I'll have to go with what benefits me the most. Letting my emotions get the better of me in a place like this is not the best thing, and definitely won't benefit me in any way shape or form. Sure, I'll be happy, he'll be happy, whoever else will be happy. But at any time that happiness is surely to be taken away. And in the event of that happening, who will be happy then? No one would.

Rica bit her lip subconsciously as she trudged along the trail. Luca noticed that Rica was awfully quiet and chose not to bother her, since she was most likely thinking about important things.

Kakashi looked back at the two girls and stopped. They were moving too slow for his taste and decided to wait till they reached him so he could try to move them along faster. The two girls passed him without noticing he even stopped for them. He cocked an eyebrow at Rica, who looked deep in thought. He shrugged it off as he pulled out a copy of his favorite book and walked along behind them reading.

Ten minutes had passed in complete silence. Luca could not take it anymore and decided to speak up.

"Anything wrong Rica?" Luca asked.

Rica snapped her head up and blinked a few times before responding.

"No, nothing is wrong. Why would there be something wrong?" she replied, slightly confused.

"You seemed to be deep in thought and looked kinda sad. So I just assumed-" Luca was cut off by Rica.

"Don't assume, nothing good comes out of assuming, especially with me." Rica said as Luca shut her mouth and looked at her with a concerned expression on her face.

"I worry about you sometimes." Luca said as she shifted the weight of her pack to her right shoulder.

"Why do you worry?" Rica said as she watched the ground as she walked.

"You're always so tense, so uptight half the time, and when you're happy, its weird. I always wonder about you." Luca finished.

Rica nodded and smiled before answering her friend.

"Well, please don't worry. Nothing is wrong with me." she said.

Luca nodded and decided to drop the subject. She couldn't help but wonder if Rica was lying or not. It was hard to tell with her.

During the course of the girls' conversation, Kakashi had stopped reading and was listening to every word. He was also concerned about Rica's actions, and wondered about her as well. Both of the girls were an enigma to him. Once he seemed to have figured them out, they go about and do something to change his theories.

He once thought Luca to only be loony and not-so-bright. But it turned out that her lunacy was only a cover-up to hide her sadness. She was also very bright, but never chose to outwardly show it.

Rica he thought was only an over analytical, anal and uptight person. It turns out that being over analytical is only a defense mechanism. But even then there was a lot to know about her, and not enough time in which to learn it.

He let out a long sigh and walked ahead of the girls, who had slowed their pace down considerably.

"Try and keep up, alright?" he said as he walked ahead of them.

Both girls nodded as they tried to hurry and catch up with him.

------------------

An hour later they made it back to the village. Kakashi, Luca and Rica waved to Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto as they walked to their homes for rest and a good shower.

Kakashi yawned as he opened the door to his apartment and let himself inside. He threw his pack onto the couch and wandered off to take a shower. Rica and Luca entered shortly after him and fell down onto the ground, exhausted.

"Goddamn, it hurts…it hurrrrts…" Luca wailed as she pulled off her shoes and began to rub her feet.

Rica sighed and looked at her friend from the floor.

"I know. No reason to let it be known." she said as she stretched her back out. Walking all that way strained almost every muscle in her body.

Rica and Luca sat by the door for a while as they regained enough energy to move around on the floor. Rica was the first to get up. She slowly made her way to the door, as she was about to close the door a newspaper caught her eye. Thinking of the comic she saw she picked up the paper right away and shut the door. She collapsed onto the couch and opened up the paper to the page with the comic and stared at it for some time in shock and disbelief.

"…no fucking way…" Rica said as she still looked at the comic.

"What?" Luca said from the floor.

"Check this out." Rica said showing Luca the page with the comic.

Luca got up and sat next to Rica on the couch and looked at the comic. She too looked at the paper with disbelief.

"What does it mean?" Luca asked Rica without looking up from the paper.

"Our time is definitely limited now." Rica said as she looked up from the paper.

Luca nodded and looked at the paper.

The comic had come out that day. It featured the man that had sent them there walking around Konoha wasting time before sending the two girls back. It read that the two girls would return home sometime that day, the time unknown.

They could very well be sent home within the hour, within two hours, or even that very minute. The idea of being sent home at any time scared both girls. They had grown accustomed to their surroundings within such a short amount of time. But the time will have to come for when they return home, and they knew that - but didn't really want to believe it.

Luca struggled to keep the tears in, but suddenly began to sob loudly.

"I don't want to go home, dammit." she said between sobs.

Rica didn't say anything, but put a hand on Luca's shoulder and patted her gently. She couldn't say anything for fear of getting emotional as well. It was better to remain emotionless throughout the entire time, to make things better for everyone else, as well as Luca.

Kakashi entered the room a few minutes later to find the girls hunched over the newspaper.

"Yo." he said as he bent down to see what they were looking at.

Luca jumped up and closed the newspaper. She didn't want him to know that they might be heading home soon.

"Nothing." Rica said calmly as she looked up at him.

"I see." he said skeptically.

Both girls nodded in unison as they put the paper on the table.

Kakashi sat down on the chair directly in front of the two girls and yawned.

"Mind moving elsewhere so I can get some sleep on that couch you're both sitting on?" he said lazily.

Rica and Luca nodded again as they got off the couch and waited for Kakashi to take it.

"What?" he asked.

"N-nothing." Rica said as she turned to go into the bedroom. She needed to pack whatever belongings she accumulated in case she had to leave within the minute.

Kakashi shrugged as he watched both the girls disappear into the room. He yawned again as he laid back on the couch.

---------------

"What are we going to do Rica?" Luca asked as she folded her old clothes and slipped them into a paper bag.

"I have no idea. We just need to be ready if we have to go now." Rica said as she too folded her old clothes and put them into a bag. She also included her gifts from Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura into another bag. She didn't want to leave those gifts behind at any cost.

"Guess we're done." Luca said as she looked around the room. A copy of Icha Icha Paradise was still sitting in the bookshelf. Luca walked over and quickly took it off only to place it in her bag. "A souvenir." she said as Rica gave her an odd look.

Rica shrugged as she sat on the bed and stretched.

"Kakashi had the right idea. I'm beat, so I'm gonna take a nap." she said with a yawn.

"But what if we have to go?" Luca said as she sat down on the bed.

"I bet we'll know when we're going back." Rica said as she laid back and fluffed her pillow. "So I'm just going to sleep."

"But what about Ka-" Luca was stopped yet again by Rica.

"What about him?" Rica said quickly.

"Weren't you going to tell him how you feel?" Luca replied.

"After thinking long and hard about it, I decided against it. It wouldn't work out anyway. If its meant to be, its meant to be." Rica said with her eyes closed.

"How would you know if it is meant to be if you don't even take a step in the right direction?" Luca snapped.

"Jesus, take a pill. Seriously, I doubt he feels the same, and my feelings are as confused as ever."

"If you say so." Luca said in a sing song voice as she too laid down.

Within minutes both girls were sound asleep.

-------------------

Damon sat at the Ichiraku Ramen with a large bowl of ramen in front of him. He had explored the village and found it to be very boring. He picked up his chopsticks and proceeded to stabbing his lunch.

"I hate chopsticks." he muttered as he used one stick to lift up some ramen. Without hesitation he stuffed the food in his mouth and began to gag. The ramen was way too hot.

"That's not the right way to use chopsticks y'know." said a familiar blond haired boy as he took a seat on the stool next to Damon.

Damon sucked the rest of the ramen into his mouth and swallowed hard before speaking to the boy.

"Well, I don't know how to use them." he said simply.

Naruto just looked at the man as if he was from another planet. Finding someone that didn't know how to use chopsticks was unheard of. At least to him.

Damon noticed the boy giving him a weird look as he used one chopstick to fish his ramen out. "What?" he grunted as he tried to get more ramen onto the stick.

"Nothing." Naruto said as he lifted the bowl up and proceeded to almost inhale the ramen.

This time it was Damon who looked at Naruto as if he was from another planet. He had never seen anyone eat so fast without choking. Except for the times when he'd witness one of his friends do a drunken dare. But this was completely different. He sat there staring at Naruto until he finished off his ramen.

Naruto noticed Damon staring at him and looked at his bowl.

"You gonna eat that?" he asked pointing to the ramen Damn still had in his bowl.

Damon wordlessly pushed the bowl over to Naruto. He inhaled that bowl as well, while Damon just shook his head in disbelief.

Naruto finished the bowl and gave an appreciative belch as he patted his stomach.

"Well, that was good." he turned towards Damon, "so what brings a stranger like you to Konoha?"

"Just looking for two girls. They were my responsibility and I lost them about a week ago." he said lazily.

Naruto sat there in silence for a few minutes. He had a feeling he knew what the man was talking about, but it hadn't hit him just yet.

"What'd they look like?" he asked cocking his head to the left.

"Ahh…one has long black hair while the other one has medium length brown hair. They're around 18-19 years of age." Damon replied.

Naruto blinked at this information and suddenly got it. That man was looking for Rica and Luca. He didn't know if he was either a friend or foe, and decided to not say anything that would connect him to the two girls.

"Haven't seen 'em. But I'll keep a look out for them." he said confidently.

Damon was only making small talk with the boy. He already knew where the girls were at, and knew that Naruto was with holding information from him. It was alright, since he didn't expect the boy to spout off where they were in the first place.

He stood up and patted Naruto on the head before leaving.

"Thanks for eating the rest of my lunch, kid." he said as he walked off in the direction of Kakashi's apartment.

-----------------

Damon stepped up to the door step of Kakashi's apartment and knocked on the door gently.

Within the apartment Kakashi groaned and rolled off the couch to see who was knocking at the door.

"Wonder who it could be…" Kakashi mumbled to himself as he opened the door.

As he saw the door knob move, Damon put his hood on to disguise himself to however that answered.

Kakashi answered the door. He poked his head out and blinked a few times as he took in the sight of the hooded man in black.

"Yes?" he asked groggily.

"It appears you are keeping something that belongs to me." Damon said in a disguised voice.

"I am?" Kakashi said as he opened the door completely and faced Damon. "And what is it that I am keeping from you?" he said, his tone much more serious than before.

"Two girls. One loud-mouthed pest, and another dull one. You got 'em, lemme have 'em." Damon replied.

"Excuse me?" Kakashi said as he arched an eyebrow.

As the two men were talking, Rica rolled out of bed at the sound of the front door opening. She wandered into the living room to see who it was, and to her surprise she recognized the hooded man from before.

Rica let out a yelp of surprise which caused Kakashi and Damon to look at her.

"Shit." she said aloud as she ran off into the bedroom to warn Luca.

"There's the dull one now." Damon said calmly.

"Well, for one she isn't dull." Kakashi said sounding annoyed.

Damon shrugged as he took a step closer.

"Mind if I come in?" he said a bit forcefully.

Kakashi shrugged and let Damon in, who immediately sat down on the couch.

---------

"Luca, Luca wake the fuck up!" Rica said as she shook her friend awake.

Luca groaned loudly and batted Rica away as she sat up to face her.

"What is it?" she mumbled.

"He's here. The man that brought us to this place is right outside talking to Kakashi as I speak. We're probably leaving soon!" she said trying to keep her cool, which she was failing at.

Luca jumped out of bed and ran into the living room. She stopped dead in her tracks to see that Rica had been telling the truth. The man was sitting on the couch as Kakashi was shutting the door.

"_You_" Luca said as she pointed at the man.

Damon looked at her and smiled from under his hood.

"Yes, it is I. Are you ready to go?" he said sounding impatient.

"W-What?" she stammered.

"Get your things, we're leaving in a while." he said

"Where are they going?" Kakashi said as he stood in front of Luca.

"Back from where they came. It was agreed that I can take them back at my discretion. And I see that they have had enough time here." Damon tried to look past Kakashi and get Luca's attention. "Get Rica out here too. I need to tell her something."

Luca blinked and ran into the bedroom to shortly come out with Rica despite her protests.

Damon looked at the two girls and laughed.

"You've always been the hardest to control." Damon said getting rid of his disguised voice.

"Excuse me?" Rica said as she cocked an eyebrow at the man.

"I guess I should let you know a few things." he said as he removed his hood.

Rica's expression went blank as she stared at her older brother. She stood there twitching for a few seconds before running up to Damon and smacking him on the head.

"YOU COULD HAVE AT LEAST TOLD ME IT WAS YOU." Rica shouted at her brother.

Kakashi and Luca stood there unsure of what to say or do.

After hitting her older brother Rica turned around to see that Kakashi and Luca were staring at them.

"Stop hitting me, Jesus Christ." Damon said as he sat up. "If I would have told you it was me, you wouldn't have come. It was a gamble to even have you agree to my message."

"You're damn right I wouldn't have agreed." Rica said with her hands on her hips. "You're fucking insane."

"Oh now that's not how you talk to your older brother." Damon said teasingly.

Kakashi and Luca both looked from Damon and Rica in disbelief.

"You're her brother?" Luca said as she pointed at Damon.

"Yes, hasn't she said anything about me?" he said turning to Rica. "Aw, you mean you haven't said anything about your dear ol' brother?"

"She has said things, but never said who." Luca said

Rica nodded in agreement.

"And I never said anything good either, you jerk." Rica said as she glared at her brother.

Kakashi just stood there.

Crazy…all of them…

He thought as he shook his head.

"Ok, I'm not going to say this again. Get your things." Damon said his expression turning serious all of a sudden.

Rica and Luca nodded as they disappeared into the bedroom to get their things.

"They're leaving?" Kakashi said a little sad. He didn't want them to go just yet for some reason.

"They have to. I can't let them stay here any longer without causing problems in their world." Damon said

"What problems?" Kakashi asked.

"People will start to realize that they're missing. And I don't want that to happen. So they have to come back." Damon said as the two girls appeared with their things.

"I understand then." Kakashi said as he adjusted his headband.

Damon nodded and stood up.

"C'mon you two. Lets get going."

"Wait a minute please." Rica said as she took a deep breath. Luca was already tearing up, and Rica didn't want the same thing to happen to her.

Luca couldn't hold it in anymore and began to sob loudly as she ran and hugged Kakashi. Kakashi stood there with Luca squeezing him tightly. He smiled and patted her on the head and peeled her off himself.

"I'll miss you too." he said forcing a smile. He tried to appear to be strong in front of the girls.

Luca smiled and followed Damon outside. Rica stood there trying not to become emotional.

Kakashi and Rica stood facing each other for a minute in complete silence. Rica blinked, realizing that she had to do something and ran up to Kakashi and gave him a hug.

"Thank you so much." she said choking back her tears.

"For what?" he said as he patted her head as well.

"Everything." Rica said letting go and running after her friend.

Damon, Luca and Rica stood outside Kakashi's apartment as Damon prepared to leave. He murmured the same words that had brought them to this world. Before they disappeared Kakashi stood outside his apartment and waved to them all.

Luca and hugging Rica's arm as Rica waved goodbye to Kakashi and the village of Konoha. They were gone in a flash of light as Kakashi blinked for a few seconds only to realize that they were gone.

----------------

Damon, Rica, and Luca appeared in the backyard of Rica's house. Luca was still sobbing as Rica tried to pry Luca off her arm.

"We're home now." Rica said in a soft voice.

"Well, see you two later. I got a party to crash." Damon said as he hopped the fence and walked off.

Rica didn't even bother calling after him since she knew it was useless.

"C'mon Luca, lets go inside." Rica said dispiritedly as she opened the sliding glass door which lead into the dining room.

-----------------

Kakashi stood in silence for a few minutes before he went inside. He shut the door behind him and walked into his bedroom.

"They're gone…" he said aloud feeling a little sad that no one was in the house with him. He had grown accustomed to having people over.

He fixed his bed as a someone knocked on the door.

"What is it now?" he said aloud to himself as he walked to answer the door.

Gai stood at the door tapping his foot impatiently as Kakashi opened the door to greet him.

"Oh…Gai, nice to see you." Kakashi said half heartedly.

"Lets go get something to drink if you're not too busy." Gai said with exuberance.

Kakashi shrugged as Gai grabbed his shoulder and pulled him out of his apartment and shut the door.

----------------------

Rica waved to Luca as she walked down the walk way. Rica shut the door behind her and let out a sigh. She was home, and home alone as usual. Everything was just as she left it, so her parents didn't even notice that she was missing. Rica slowly made her way upstairs and turned on her computer.

There wasn't anything else she could do, considering she was alone once again.

Luca made it home and waved to her mother who casually waved to her. Luca's mother didn't even notice her being gone either. She sighed heavily and walked into her room, shutting the door behind her.

----------------------

Damon was as happy as always shouting and cheering as one of his friends was trying to drink as much beer as he could within one minute.

----------------------

Kakashi was dragged home by Gai who had convinced him to drink more than he should. Gai dropped Kakashi on his couch and wandered into his bedroom and slept on his bed. Kakashi had to endure yet another night of sleeping on his couch, but he wasn't conscious to know it yet.

----------------------

Rica turned off her computer as she got ready for bed. She had partially missed her own bed and was happy to be able to sleep in it. She regretted not being able to say anything to Kakashi, or even getting the chance to say goodbye to the others. Perhaps she'd have another chance, and for some reason she had a feeling she would.

----------------------

Around 3:00AM Damon crept back into his house and collapsed in the hallway. He was too drunk to make it to his room.

To imagine a man like Damon with the weird ability to send people to where they want to go. No one would ever suspect someone like him.

------------------

Rica shut off her lamp and curled up in bed.

I'm going to miss them all. Hopefully I can see them again someday.

She thought to herself as she covered herself up.

Little did she know that she would get her chance in the future.

---------------------------------------

The End

(At least of the first part)

---------------------------------------

Well, that's the end of the first part. Its uber long, I know, I know.

I will get to starting chapter one of the sequel as soon as possible.

Thank you to everyone who has read, and will read this story.

And thank you to all my reviewers! Thank you so very much.

Until the next story

Darkestviolet


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